Good night sun

I'll see you in the morning.

Hollenbeck Canyon - Dog Training 101

Sean and I met some members of the San Diego Sporting Dog Club on Saturday at Hollenbeck Canyon for a little dog training. It's always fun to start out with a little pure puppy play, but...

...once the birds come out, it's really hard to wait your turn sometimes - even for a puppy.

America needed a little help from her buddy Greta to find her bird, but she did manage to point at 3 piles of feathers. While America got an introduction to the check cord...

...Ronald got an introduction to birds. At first, he really didn't have an interest in the feathered creatures, but once we flung it around in front of his face like it was a toy, he took a quite a liking to them. We took him out into the field to see if he could find a pigeon. Let's just say he was looking the other way when the bird flushed, BUT once he saw it in the air, his little GSP instinct kicked in and he ran like the wind! I think he's coming along just fine for now.

Good Morning

'merica, 'merica! part II

Training day: You'll notice she has her e-collar around her neck and the lead hanging off her neck flying in the wind. You just never know how far a dog is going to run. The key is a lot of praise to get her to do what you want her to do.

You have to wonder what she's thinking. She's never flown before, so does she expect to jump up and catch that bird?

Test time with the judge.

Reagnator the Regulator. This guy still needs a few more months of pure puppy play. I've actually only seen America develop an interest in birds over the past few weeks. I took him out into the bird field and all he wanted to do was play with the other dogs, but with such a great role model, I'm sure Sean's dog will come along just fine.

A huge thank you to Randy from the San Diego Sporting Dog Club for capturing these shots.

Autumn in Ramona

Do you think the neighbors would notice if I took just one pomegranate? I'm not even sure they know they have juicy ripe fall fruits literally bursting open at the seams exposing their sweet insides. They sure are pretty little things.

Autumn in Ramona feels and looks just a little like summer. Summer the way I like it: Cool, crisp evenings and warm, sultry days. We get up with the sun and watch it crest over the mountains. Watch the light change. Watch the drops of dew evaporate. We head out in the evenings as the clouds of fluff come billowing over the mountains. It feels like the clouds that builds up along the shoreline and I imagine I'm at the beach.

Full Disclosure

Miss America: Winner* of the Puppy Pointing Stake at the San Diego Fall Classic held by the San Diego Sporting Dog Club.

Sometimes going out on a limb can pay off.
I just spent the weekend
without Sean...
with a bunch of people I don't know...
in the "middle of" Holtville, CA...
on the edge of an alfalfa field...
for the sake of my dog. It only seems fair to get her doing what she wants to do. And what she wants to do is find birds. And she is off to a great start. I was a little worried on training day. We put her on 2 pigeons. She found the first one but I swear I don't know how she didn't trip over that second one. She didn't even see it. No clue! I was figuring maybe she just got lucky with the first one and honestly had little confidence in her going into the competition*. I know she comes from a good line. She is, after all, the niece of Farley. But, this is all new to me. Very new. So new, I must have drove Pam, Mary and Steve crazy asking the silliest questions about the test*, in different ways, again and again. "Just have fun," they told me. When it came time to take her out on the field on Sunday I had the biggest smile on my face. I was just going to be proud of her if she didn't run off the field! But, she far exceeded my expectations. "Trust your dog," was the phrase I kept hearing over and over again as the handlers from previous stakes exited the field. She found the first bird (pheasant), ran after it and I shot the blank pistol. She was having the time of her life. We circled back around. She found the second bird and POINTED AT IT (!!!!!!)! (The judges said it was beautiful!) It flew. She ran. I fired. I did it! She did it! We did it! I love this dog.
There was more than one time during the weekend, where I thought to myself, "What am I doing here?" But, deep down I knew it was for more than the sake of my dog. It was for my sake, too. I don't exactly fit into the mold of the average entrant into the Fall Classic, but sometimes it's fun to be the oddball. It gives everyone else a good, legitimate excuse to make fun of me! And besides, someone needs to figure out how to make blaze orange look cute in the field.

(*ok, so maybe she was the only dog entered in the Puppy Pointing Stake, automatically making her the winner, but if you had seen her out in that field you would be just as ecstatic as I am)