This is how I feel after spending 7 1/2 hours in meetings today.
So busy this week, I lost track of the days. No time to go to the practice field, hopefully I can sneak in a practice this weekend. We've been having weave pole bootcamp in the backyard though. Not sure if I'm helping or hurting the training, poor Strum has regressed again to popping out at pole 8 and missing those onside entries. Argh, I feel like I'm bashing my head against the wall so I'm going to try something different next week. Part of the problem is that my yard is too small but maybe I'll find a way to work around. Also I think I'll try to take my weave poles out to the Rez sometime next week to try training somewhere new. Not sure if I can fit the whole set in the car but I'm sure I can get at least 6 and a practice jump.
Maggot ball was a huge hit, all 3 dogs went nuts. I'm sure it was the treats they got for getting on maggot ball and not the ball itself but after a few minutes there was much insane barking and fighting for who gets to get on maggot ball next and I had to institute the ever popular Sit Down and Shut Your Piehole Protocol for the dogs not on the ball or risk an 'incident' and the premature loss of my hearing. I'll have to get Jonny to assist to get video or photos because there's no way I can play photojournalist and doggy physical therapist at the same time. I'll also have to pull out some old Clean Runs and get ideas for exercises because right now all I've got is 'Climb up on the ball and lie down', hopefully without simultaneously barking your head off.
I'm mentally exhausted after those marathon meetings so I'll leave you for now with some soothing Scottish ukele Ramones music. Perfect for whatever ails you.
Or, 'How to lose 10 pounds and take 10 years off your life in one weekend'.
(Photos are by the most awesome Ken Gee)
Despite keeping Lola's entry to 1-2 classes each day I still ended up running back and forth between the rings like a crazy person for most of the day. The highlight of the madness was when during my run with Strummer in one ring the lady organizing the volunteers starts yelling at me in a not so nice voice over the loudspeaker for not showing up to work my job in the other ring even though I had informed someone of the conflict and been told it was no problem. I'm working hard on my handling skills but I don't think I'm up to the level yet of being able to run Mister Speedy McCrazypants in one ring while setting jumps in another. Maybe there are some NADAC distance handlers that are close to being able to pull that one off but so far my distance handling skills are not up to that level. It all worked out in the end though and I didn't end up having to hold up any rings this year or miss any walk-thrus. But I'm sure that between all the running around and then getting roped into leash running for Steeplechase at the end of the day that I must have worked off at least 10 lbs. Well, maybe 1 lb anyway. All I know for sure is that I could barely move Saturday night and was considering an ice bath which I only consider when the situation is dire. I'm not sure how the people with zillions of dogs in all 3 levels manage it.
Lola
Lola started off the day with a nice opening in Gamblers but just as the horn blew she took the dogwalk going the wrong way and when I called her to me thinking she'd turn around and come back down the walk like she normally does she jumped off the walk from the middle of the flat top plank and took about 10 years off my life. If you think I gave a rat's ass about the gamble after that you'd be sorely mistaken. Once I assured myself I would not be needing a defibrillator I did attempt the gamble and though it was easy I wasn't positioned quite right and didn't have my heart in it so she didn't pull it off. It was a shame too because it was such an easy gamble for her.
Her Standard run was nice but fell victim to a knocked bar which shook me up a bit because she rarely knocks bars and I was worried she'd hurt herself during her dogwalk fiasco but looking at the video she was moving pretty fast and nothing looked off so I think it was a fluke. Joy was taping for me and afterwards she said she couldn't see why the bar came down either and she's good at spotting that sort of thing. I think I pulled away from her laterally and maybe it distracted her a bit. Also I was behind her at that point and maybe she wasn't sure where to go so she looked at me and took her attention off her jumping.
She got on the table no problem, all happy face and waggy tail but during the table count she lost it and sat up and started barking. Maybe nervous about the judge, maybe nervous in general and wanted to get going, who knows. I didn't argue the point because she's already got enough issues and she did get on the table happily enough. I haven't been working enough duration during our table training so that's my fault, not hers. This has been on purpose but now I think it's time to add it in.
I thought Sunday's run was a Q but the scribe sheet said otherwise and as I said before I suspect it was the up contact on the dogwalk. It was the only time during the run that I took my eye off of her. She got on the table no problem then hesitated a bit before laying down but she did lay down and hold it for the count so I was pleased with that. Of course I don't have that run on tape.
Strummer
Strum had a good trial, was mostly calm-for-him and focused with the exception of waiting his turn for his Snooker run. I'm not sure what was setting him off but of all the classes to lose your head. It was the only A-frame he missed all weekend and after missing the A-frame he sort of took off on his own taking an obstacle after a red that was the opposite direction of where we needed to go but I was able to call him to me and save the run somehow for a Q. Gamblers had an easy gamble and he picked up a Q there. Did you know you can Q in Starters Pairs with an off course? We had an off course but our partner was clean and we still Q'ed with 10 seconds to spare somehow. Strum kept his head waiting his turn and I was able to get his leash of while my partner brought me the baton.
Jumpers was funny because during the walk-through this woman was freaking that she was going to get lost and I told her don't be ridiculous, once you're through the opening/tunnel/front cross it's just a big loop, no way you'll get lost and if you think you will then for sure you will so get that idea out of your head right now. Then of course I proceed to come out of the front cross, see a sea of jumps ahead of me and forget which one starts the loop. But refusals don't count in Starters so I regrouped and got us through no problem for a Q and 1st place even with the bobble.
Both Standard runs saw problems with the weaves, still need to put in some work on those. He'd had no problem at class on Thursday with an unfamiliar set of poles and picked up some impressive entries, did the full set no problem. I guess it's a matter of more practice. Other than the weaves I think between his 2 runs he had one knocked bar, one missed dogwalk and a hop off the table but he got back on and held his stay. Again, I've not been working on stay/duration with the table so need to practice more of that. His nicer run was on Sunday but of course that's the one I don't have a tape of. The person taping thought she'd turned the camera on but in fact she'd turned it off. There's something funny with the camera because I've had that problem myself several times now at practice. I'll have to play around with it and see what's up. So I only have Saturday's run which was the first run of the trial for him and probably his worst run other than that crazy Snooker run.
Overall it was a fun trial. The Border Collie rescue group that I do some volunteer work for was there and I got to chat with a few of the people that I usually only 'talk' to via email. The last thing the dogs need is more dog toys but the rescue was selling those stupid squeaky rubber balls with the feet at a price way cheaper than what the store sells them for and Strummer loves those stupid things when he finds them at the training field so I thought I'd get him one and give some support to the rescue. The one on display was a regular round ball with feet but the woman selling them told me I could have a different color so I asked for red. I didn't notice right away but after playing with it with the dogs for a bit I noticed it had devil horns unlike the one on display.
I'm not sure if it had the horns when she gave it to me and she knew Strummer was a devil boy so that was the toy for him or if the thing sprouted horns after realizing it was going to be Strummy's toy. And even though I bought it with Strummer in mind it turns out Lola is even more crazy for the stupid thing. I think it's something about the texture of the rubber and the squeaking sound that sounds like small animals being tortured.
The other weird souvenir that I cane home with came from the worker's raffle. The woman running the raffle came up to me at some point during the day and said, 'Elayne, I don't think you heard your name called but you won a peanut', in a voice like I should be excited about this so I'm guessing it's not an actual peanut but I can't get my brain around what this could possibly mean. Finally the fog clears a bit and I remember seeing some vendors selling those giant inflatable workout balls but they're for dogs and you could maybe say they kind of look like a peanut but really mine looks more like a maggot. Sure enough this is what I've won and apparently these things are worth $79.
I'm not sure what is more disturbing, the fact that my husband came home from his bike ride on Sunday to find me in the garage using a 'plug in the cigarette lighter' air pump to blow up a giant inflatable maggot or the fact that he didn't even so much as bat an eyelash at me. Here is something you need to know about these maggot balls if you decide to buy one-they take a freaking huge amount of air, especially if you have the gigantic jumbo size for your big pony dog. Actually this thing is so big it probably could hold a pony. Or it could if I could blow it up to its proper size but the thing is so huge it burned out the motor in the air pump. They gave me a little hand pump for blowing up soccer balls in the bag with my maggot ball and this has got to be the most hilarious joke ever. I took maggot ball to the chiropractor in the hopes that they'd have a proper air compressor since they have a bunch of the fit balls for people but it turns out they blow theirs up with a hand pump so they were no help and now I'm driving around town with a giant yellow rubber maggot in the back of my car in hopes of finding someone with a lot of hot air and I'm not at all sure how my life has come to this or what I'm going to do with said rubber maggot once I do get it properly inflated or perhaps most importantly of all where this monstrous thing is going to live in my little house. Riddle me that Batman.
What, you mean you don't all drive around town with a giant rubber maggot in the back of your car?
Due to it being closed off by all the festive yellow 'Do Not Cross' police tape because of the University crew coach finding a dead body 4' off the shore where I normally play with the dogs. Ick ick ick. It so easily could have been me or the dogs that found the body. Luckily it was snowing this morning and I had an 8:00 meeting so I didn't go. Was planning to go tomorrow but I guess I'll have to find somewhere else for the dogs to run out their monkeys. Weird thing is they said the guy was wearing 'clothing appropriate for going into the water'. I would like to know exactly what kind of clothing that would be. The Rez only recently melted, water temps. are in the low 40's and I can't imagine a regular wetsuit being sufficient. I know some pretty crazy hardcore triathletes but nobody crazy enough to brave the Rez in those temps. I didn't even let Strummer swim in there the other day.
It was freaky watching the news reports and seeing the investigators combing over our beloved stomping ground. Not sure when we'll be allowed back in.
Oh, you wanted to hear about the agility trial? I'll get there, really I will, but I'm crazy busy with the contract work I'm doing, been in a big long meeting for the past 3 days and finally got to come up for air today and priority goes to my poor neglected pups. I have a little video and some photos but will probably be a few days until I can get it all together. In short, Strum was 4/6 getting Q's in Jumpers and all the games, trouble with weaves in Standard, 6/7 on his A-frame, 1/2 on his dogwalk, only one run where I felt he was getting the crazies waiting his turn, survived his pairs run (just).
Lola was 0/3, I thought she'd Q'ed one of her Standard runs but there was a Standard fault on her scribe sheet. I can't imagine what it was so I'm guessing it was likely the stupid dogwalk up contact, that's the only contact I didn't see, which is aNOTHer thing that irks me about USDAA. I refuse to slow her down and jack with her stride so we takes what we gets on the upside. I've tried to train this, believe me, it's simply not worth it, I'd rather just do DOCNA. USDAA is not a very 'big dog friendly' venue that's for sure. It's a great place to compete if you have an 18"-20 7/8" Border Collie (or whatever kind of dog) but for the rest of us, well, I guess it's Festivus for the rest of us, or DOCNA or something. Nonetheless I had a good time at the trial and won an interesting prize in the worker's raffle. I'll write more when I get a chance.
I can't believe I have a trial this weekend. I can't even remember the last time I trialed, maybe DOCNA in mid-February. On the one hand I was hoping Strum's weave poles would be further along but on the other hand they're looking pretty fabulous so maybe I'm worrying over nothing. Multiple snow storms this past month put a damper on our training but still we got to the point of one jump rotating around the clock and 6 poles. We've done this exercise ad nauseum, with sends, recalls, me on both sides, rear crosses previously but Strummer would sometimes struggle with the more difficult entries, especially onside entries, and after starting out o.k. at trials for some reason had a complete meltdown with them in January/February. So I've been retraining using Mary Ellen Barry's twist on the 2x2 method and so far it's worked great. Strum now seems to have an understanding of entries that he didn't have before and couldn't quite get with the regular 2x2 method. Apparently something about those rotated poles was blowing his brain because he breezed through the training with the straight poles. I was hoping to be further along in the proofing process before this April trial but Mother Nature had other ideas.
We ran a few dogwalks and A-frames this past week and he was great, I'm not too worried about that. Again would like to have done some more dogwalk proofing but can't worry about it now.
He's running a full slate of classes in P1 (no tournaments though). I even entered Pairs. I harassed this poor woman with a nice calm Aussie all the way back in January to team up with Strum. He knows the dog from classes and practice so I'm hoping he'll behave. This will probably be his last USDAA trial for a while. I'm irritated with USDAA for a slew of reasons, the main one being the whole hassle they've put me through over measuring. I wanted to go down to Pueblo last May to run Lola and have Strum measured by the CMJ on Sunday but they won't let an unentered dog be measured and I couldn't enter him because of the 2 rings/no barriers issue. Despite 3 measurements under 21", the CMJ in August measured him at 21 1/4" so now I need 2 more CMJ's to measure him under. So far this year there are no CMJ's scheduled, next possible one is in August again. And who knows if they'll have one. So I've had to wait a minimum of a year for another measurement, who knows how long for the second if the first measures him under. What a pain, this could have been settled in either May or August of last year but now who knows how long it'll drag on and all for a stupid rule. USDAA sure doesn't like to make it easy for their customers. So I can spend the year hoping he measures into CH 22" (and what happens if he doesn't?) on a per trial basis or put him in Performance and start from scratch in Championship if he ever gets the lower measurements. Jumping him at 26" is out of the question, I refuse to do it, USDAA can bite me on that one. If he ends up in Performance then there's no vet program for him. I guess I can bite USDAA on that one. I'm also having issues with them dragging their feet on equipment/safety issues (24" poles, displaceable tire). Given my limited funds these days I've decided we'll be focusing on DOCNA. I'll enter Lola in Gamblers and Standard at the local (40-50 minutes away) trials to try to finish up her championship but I'm not traveling for USDAA this year and I'm probably not going to spend the money entering Strummer at all.
Lola is only entered in 3 classes at this trial. I don't want to deal with conflicts again between the 2 rings. I may have at least one on Saturday but none for sure on Sunday. I've been practicing her table in the backyard but little else. She's come up limping at least once in the past 6 weeks for no apparent reason so I've been resting her and then building her up again with walking/off leash running but no equipment. I'm sure she'll be fine for 3 runs over 2 days.
There will be sardines?
Yes my dear, there will be sardines for good little girls who lay down on the table all smiles and grins and waggy tails and stay there until instructed otherwise.
Would be great to pick up those 2 Standard legs for her Perf. MAD but no big deal if we don't. For now we enjoy every run we have left.
Note: No Border Collies were intoxicated during the making of this pizza.
You didn't think I'd give up that easily did you? Truth of the matter is I had all the ingredients for the pizza except yeast and flour and didn't know what else to do with them so I figured I may as well give it another bash before they go bad.
I manage to proceed through the dough rising stage with no incident. This time I put the rising dough on top of the fridge when I go for my run and when I return I find everybody sober and a nice huge lump of dough.
I knead it a little and spread it out into the pizza pan thus.
Lots of little fork marks. I forget why.
The rest of the process is easy. I cry a bit when I cut the onions but that's the worst of the kitchen disasters. In the end it looks like this, Chicago Deep Dish Pan Pizza right here in Boulder, Colorado.
Which brings up a point that I overlooked-elevation. Turns out dough rises more quickly and cooks more quickly at elevation and I didn't adjust for this so the crust ended up a little burned on the bottom and a bit too doughy. Jonny liked it because he likes his crust hard and burny but it's not exactly the way I like it. Still it was good, way better than any pizza you can buy here, burnt crust and all. I think if I make a few altitude adjustments I can get it very close to perfect.
Strum was licking his chops while I was preparing the dough, you'd think he would have learned his lesson. He and the other dogs had to settle for some dropped bits of cheese and pieces of burnt crust, not as exciting as last weekend but not a bad haul either.
You know what happens when you assume... Turns out Strummer did get into the raw dough. Turns out he can't hold his liquor either. For those unaware, the yeast from the dough ferments in their warm, moist tummies and turns to alcohol. Having a drunk dog is not as fun as it sounds. Maybe he was the life of the party earlier in the evening but at 2 a.m. there is nothing but lots of the worst smelling puke to clean up and watching to make sure he doesn't do himself an injury while he's staggering around like an idiot babbling nonsense. Kind of like that roommate you had in college. Exactly like that roommate I had in college anyway. At least he didn't bring home a drunk 6'-6" tall guitar player from the rockabilly band he'd seen that night and let him pass out on my bed at 2 a.m. after I'd spent the night in studying for an exam the next day. But I suppose that's a story for another day. Or maybe not.
I'm not sure if this is a vet sort of emergency or the sort of thing you gut out but there is so much puke and he looks so terrible staggering around, at one point he's falling completely over, and he won't settle down so I consult the Internetz which I know is not always the best plan but at 2:30 a.m. I don't have any better ideas. Of course the Internetz is all 'Get that dog to a vet immediately, the quicker he's treated the better his chances of recovery' and '...kidney damage...' and '...outcome not so great if you wait too long...'. I hem and haw and keep my eye on him for another 1/2 hour and he looks a little better but not much and finally I reluctantly decide to take him in. I've never had good experiences with 24 hour vets and I avoid them if possible but I'll feel terrible if he ends up with kidney damage and I could have done something. The Internet is not too specific about treatment options-charcoal solution to absorb the alcohol and IV fluids is all they say-but I'm hoping the real vet will know what to do.
Well, the 'real' vet looks like he ought to be out playing bad Nirvana covers in some hipster indie band rather than doling out doggy medical advice. His first thought is that why don't I just go home, there isn't any danger here, they give alcohol to dogs all the time as treatment for anti-freeze poisoning. I explain about how insistent the Internet is that this is a serious medical emergency and he says, 'Well, o.k., I'll look into it to see what's a dangerous dose.' Strummer is staggering around the exam room on the smooth floor. 'Dude, you're harshing my buzz, can we please go home now and please tell that giant squirrel in the corner over there to quit staring at me.' I'm thinking to myself, 'I bet he's just consulting the Internet' and sure enough he comes back in the room and tells me he's consulted his internet vet service and they say his prognosis is good, all we have to do is admit him to the hospital for 24 hours and hook him up to IV fluids and monitor his blood acid (or something, it was 4 am and I was a bit foggy). So now we go from 'Go on home Missy' to a $750 stint in doggy rehab.
Can I get a bed next to Robert Downey Jr.? I hear he knows how to party.
I'm having one of those surreal moments where I wonder if I'm dreaming because I'm not sure how my life has come to deciding on the merits of doggy rehab for my drunk Border Collie at 4 a.m. on a Monday morning. I notice they're going to run some blood work before admitting him so I suggest that maybe we can run the blood work now and see how bad he is before I commit to this absurd expense. The vet agrees that maybe that makes sense and the results come back practically normal. I decide Strummer can dry out at home and the vet gives me some symptoms to watch for that would indicate he's getting worse. I'm not happy about the $167 vet bill but it's better than $750 and I finally have some piece of mind that he's going to be o.k.
I climb back into bed at 5 a.m. and have nightmares about the vet's creepy tattoo that covers the length of his arm. I'm up at 7:15 and Strummer is moving a lot better. I won't go so far as to say he looks good but I'm convinced he's through the worse of it. The vet did warn that there are such things as doggy hangovers.
Never again.
I wonder how many Chicago style pizzas I could have had mailed to me for $167?
One of the things I miss most about Chicago is the pizza. You can't get Chicago style pizza anywhere else, especially in Boulder. For a while there was an Eduardo's in Westminster, about 20 minutes away. It wasn't exactly quite right but it was as close as it was going to get but unfortunately it shut down. There was also a take-out place in Boulder that did something close but that was short lived. We have a chain called 'Old Chicago' but don't even get me going. I found a place in the suburbs of Salt Lake City of all places when I was in Utah for a trial and it was authentic and fabulous but that's about a 7 1/2 hour drive so not terribly practical.
Anyway, I picked up a cookbook of Chicago style pizzas in a used bookstore in Chicago for $5 and because it was a really good cookbook with photos and descriptions of every little step I learned to make them myself. The trouble with this is that I got to see how much cheese goes into those things and this dampened my enthusiasm a bit both for making them and bringing them back from Chicago, frozen in an extra suitcase. But I had the misfortune of coming across a t.v. show that was comparing New York style pizza to Chicago style pizza and trying to determine which was better and we probably shouldn't talk about this t.v. show because first of all the very notion is hilarious and second of all of course the firefighter taster panel in Chicago picked Chicago style pizza and the NY firefighters were certainly going to pick NY no matter what they were judging so where did they go for the tiebreaker? Now I love California, it's one of my favorite places to visit but I've had the second worst pizza experience of my life in CA (worst was in England where they actually deep fry them or something). I forget (mercifully) exactly what happened but I'm pretty sure there was pineapple involved. Californians know nothing of pizza, I'm sorry all my wonderful CA readers and friends, but it's true so of course the people in L.A. picked the NY pizza and this whole thing was so preposterous that it didn't even warrant yelling and swearing and getting aggravated because c'mon, you've got to be kidding me. ANYway, once the hilariousness of this show wore off I realized I had a terrible craving for some real pizza and since the trails are a slushy, snowy, mudfest I decided I'd give one a shot today.
I walked to the grocery store, got my ingredients and ran into my friend Amelia who I haven't talked to in ages and ended up yakking away and my quick trip turned into over an hour and the stuff I bought was way heavier than I thought it would be even with the small bag of flour instead of the big one so that was not a fun walk home.
The only hard part about the pizza is the crust and you have to make it from scratch. This involves yeast and hot water but not too hot or you'll kill the yeast but not too cold or the yeast won't do its thing and that would be bad. Like ruin the whole thing kinda bad. And I don't have a cooking thermometer. I do have a regular check-to-see-if-you're-sick thermometer though. I'm not sure if it's working properly though and in the end I finally take the risk and pour the water over the yeast with much worry and angst. I hate the thought of killing the poor yeast, it sounds so cruel. It's supposed to sit for 5 minutes so it can 'froth'. They even have a picture in the book of frothing yeast. My yeast doesn't look like the stuff in the book.
Frothy?
Once it's sufficiently frothy you're supposed to make a well in your flour mixture and pour it in. When I do this it finally gets a bit upset and starts frothing. Yay! Looks like I didn't kill the yeastie beasties after all. Cooking is fun, it's like science class.
Then you have to knead the dough until it's soft & smooth. That part's a pain, especially since I sliced a middle finger open yesterday and can't bend it, but I manage in the end and now we have this:
Looks pretty good, yes? It's a huge accomplishment for me anyway, so many places where this could have headed south. Now I have to leave it for 1 1/2 hours while the science part takes over and it doubles in size. I carefully cover it in plastic and then with a dish towel per the instructions. With 42 minutes to go I peek at it and it looks great, getting bigger for sure. Hurray, the hard part is done and on my first try! I can practically taste the pizza now.
And here's where we get to the tragedy part of the story. I go out for a quick 4 mile run and leave Jonny and all the dogs alone with the dough. Jonny leaves the dough on the kitchen counter and takes Cody for a walk. I come home to this:
I don't need to enlist the Scooby Doo crew to solve this mystery, I'm pretty sure I know who the culprit is.
I bust out the hydrogen peroxide and perform my own forensics investigation. Sure enough in a few minutes the yeast is once again frothing away in a pile in the backyard looking not too unlike the way it looks in the photo above. I don't have to test Strummer, I know there's no way Miss Lola would share with him. Thankfully there's no blood anywhere so no one was hurt by the broken glass. There were no glass pieces in the pile of puke so hopefully she didn't swallow any. It was a risk making her puke because glass coming back up could have done some damage but I figured it was unlikely she'd swallowed any and if she had the pieces would probably be quite small and buried in the dough. Sadly we've been through this sort of drama before with broken glass and thankfully she was o.k.
By now it's 4:15 and I would have to go back to the store for more flour and maybe run into someone else I know and another 1 1/2 hours just for the dough to rise and this project seemed a whole lot more fun when I started it at 10:30 a.m. and was not tired from running and making dogs puke. So Jonny offered to cook dinner and no pizza tonight. Maybe I'll try again next weekend. Or maybe I'll see if that place in Utah delivers.
Was I really complaining about the 70 degree weather? Really?
Cody sez let me the hell inside woman, this is madness out here. And get me some hot cocoa. Now.
I'm pretty sure if the snow comes up to your stomach it's o.k. to skip the weave pole practice for today. We did manage a single practice yesterday with the poles at normal distance and it went well.
Somebody was an awesome boy at his agility lesson last night.
Somebody turned 5 this month and received the gift of a brain. Maybe. I hope. We haven't had a lesson with Joy since I think last November or December but the little crazy man did some wonderful stuff out there. Nice collection on his call to heels and even sent a good long distance to a tunnel with the entrance perpendicular to his line of sight which has always been challenging for him. Lots of nice focus and control and not so much running amok. I'm still rushing things at times when I need to hold back or hold my ground but I felt a lot calmer than I normally do. I think that Mary Ellen Barry/Jenn Crank seminar helped so much as did that Stacy Peardot workshop.
Best of all though he was relatively calm while the other dogs ran and while I walked the courses and talked to Joy. He even kept his sit-stay while another dog chased his ball right next to him. He thought about breaking, I could tell, but he didn't and he got lotsa treats for that. The guy I split my lesson with noticed a change in him too. Or maybe he was just having a good day. Today he was inside the house barking his fool head off while I was shoveling snow completely out of sight. Such a noisy little dork.
