Ayrmetes

Today I had the courage to take Kachina to the dog park (a.k.a. "evil place") for a training exercise.  I kept the leash on her this time!!!  The training exercise was for both her and me. My goal was to be able to walk my dog down that bike path with confidence.  My goal for Kachina was for her to be able to walk down that path and avoid confrontation.

 

It was scary as there were many people at the evil place. Their little demon animals running around - some obviously out of control. I wore my MP3 player so that if anyone got the urge to scream at me I could just turn the volume up. It's not that I'm afraid of confrontation, I just don't want to have to call Cathy to bail me out of jail. Ha ha 

 

Anyway, we did pretty good today. There was a couple of times when a dog approached Kachina. First I got in between them and told Chena to "leave it" as soon as she growled or made her "attack" noise, I gave her a pretty stern leash correction. I was using a prong collar and felt in control of her at all times.  A young guy came along with a young bull dog who didn't get the hint and got into Chena's face despite my efforts to avoid the issue. Kachina made some noise and the guy grabbed his dog out of the way and apologized to me.  Go figure ... someone else apologizing for a change!  It really wasn't Kachina's fault because she is on a two foot leash and had no where to go.  She did get a correction anyway because I don't want her doing that kind of thing ...I'm Alpha damn it!  LOL

 

I noticed a sign at the park that said that the bike path (where I was walking) was "on leash". That gave me extra courage because I felt like I was exercising my right to be there. After all, if my dog is on the leash in an leased area and someone else's dog come up to her and causes trouble ... I'm not the one at fault. I hate that when it's my fault and I get yelled at.  Why that matters I don't know.

 

My goal is to be able to walk Kachina at the evil place and she just ignore other dogs. It's going to take some training but it can be done ... or so I think.

 

M.

To me the dog park is an evil place because temptation and trouble are just a dog away. To others, it's Kachina that is the evil one.

 

So it's been a year or more since I ventured to the dog park.  I thought, maybe we'll go there and I'll keep Kachina on leash and it will be okay. Ha! That's why it's evil ... it lures you into trouble.  So we are walking along and there is no one around and I'm thinking, hey this isn't so bad, maybe we'll be able to come here once in a while.  Kachina had been playing well with the neighbor's dog and a visiting dog.

 

What's that ahead?  Another Belgian?  COOL!!!!  I'm excited now.  So the dog approaches and Kachina does her growly thing. The owner says, "What that all about?"  I said, "Maybe it's because she is on leash." And stupid, stupid, stupid me lets her off the leash. Chaos, to say the very least follows. Two Belgians fighting and the owner screaming.  I'm thinking "Shut up lady, you are making it worse!"  I get the dogs apart and no one is hurt (we'll psychological damage put aside) and the lady is acting like we are the plague ... okay Satan incarnate. I can't say that I blame her as I feel totally stupid for my act.  Letting her off the leash. What was I thinking?  It goes to show you my inexperience as a dog trainer! Sigh.

 

Anyway, I say to the lady.  "I know this incident scared the bejesus out of you. Your dog is okay. If my dog really wanted to hurt your dog, she would have. What you just saw was a battle over dominance. I'm so sorry you were frightened by it. I will not bring my dog here again."  I kept talking and got her calmed down enough that we were able to walk together and talk about Belgians and how much we love the breed (most of the time).  Sigh ... oh Kachina, you are such a be-otch!  Then we went home.

 

We are in my back yard talking to the neighbor, telling him about the latest adventure in the dog park and there goes Kachina and Teko - fence fighting. Where's my remote trainer when I need it!!!!  We decide to let the dogs play. Cujo is over there (lab x) and normally they get along. Kachina finds a bone and Cujo makes the mistake to go up to her to what, take the bone. Yikes!  They begin fighting. Okay the cool thing is about to happen.  Kachina and Cujo go at it and then Teko comes up behind Kachina and bites her in the ass.  LOL  Way to go Teko!!! He put a stop to that nonsense in a hurry.  Now if only he could do that at the dog park.

 

Note to self: I will never, ever let Kachina off leash at the dog park ever again. 

 

Andy has been able to walk Kachina at the dog park without incident (on leash). I would like to be able to do this.  Now I'm chicken.  I hate it when people say "What's wrong with her" when she acts up.  There is nothing wrong with her. She is a dog with an attitude. Now, I'm not saying it's a great attitude but she isn't mental or anything. Face it Marisa; it's a place of evil. Nothing good will ever come from going there.

 

Sigh.

 

 

This summer I've had the opportunity to begin riding horses on a more regular basis. It's been great to bring Kachina out to Cathy's "ranch" and go for a ride. Cathy's ranch is a big section of land out by Turner Valley where they keep their horses. They have a rustic cabin on the property but we haven't spent the night there since we were teenagers. It was more fun then to "rough it", now a days we both have too many animals at home that we can't leave and we like running water and indoor plumbing. Ha ha wimps, I know.

 

Anyway back to Kachina.  The remote training collar is a wonderful tool. When I first brought Chena out to the ranch and she had her first urge to chase the horses, I gave her a strong correction. My goal was for her to associate being close to the horses with an unpleasant feeling. Mission accomplished. 

 

There is this hay field that a person leases from Cathy's dad and in this field he keeps a bunch of cows. One day we decided to ride through the hay field and when we got to the far corner, there was this one cow ... alone, separated from the herd. I thought it would be interesting to see what Kachina would do, so I didn't call her when she cautiously approached it. The cow being smarter than one would normally give a cow credit for, decided to get the hell out of there. Kachina's prey drive kicked in (which it will when anything runs away from her) and started chasing it. Oh what fun, a chew toy that runs! Yippee!

 

She chased the cow across the hay field, back to the herd and then chased some of the herd around for a while. Our saying that day was "Lean Beef". 

 

Last weekend, we went for a ride and Chena chased the cows for a bit and then we continued on. We were coming down the road, which is usually quiet, when this big semi truck came across one of the cattle gates. The horse Cathy was riding got spooked and started bucking. Cathy got bucked off the horse and Kachina went after the horse. So much for avoidance training. Kachina almost got kicked, Cathy hurt her leg and hit her head. It was a chaotic few minutes. My attention was divided between helping Cathy get up and getting Kachina away from the horse. Luckily Kachina was not hurt and Cathy, although hurt, did not sustain any life-threatening injuries. 

 

In retrospect, I wonder if allowing Kachina to chase cows eased her fear of approaching horses? Maybe Kachina thought the horse was attacking and felt the need to protect us from it? 

 

 

Well it's been so darn hot lately that I've been spending as much time in air conditioned places as possible. Unfortunately that usually means shopping. Man do I have a talent for spending money! Hmmm now I need a bit more talent in making money. Ha Ha  Oh Andy ... lol ... just kidding.

 

I wonder what my neighbors think of my house being a wild bird sanctuary? Never mind the Raven in the kitchen, you should see my outdoor collection of wild friends. There is the three crows that hang out on the tree across the street. It's a mated pair and their baby. This young crow was born down the street from me. It was kind of cool, spotting the nest and Kachina and I visited the nesting site every day while the little one was in production. We wanted to make sure that all was okay. Now, the little one hangs out with it's parents, who have shown him or her that Marisa's house is the place to find peanuts, cat food and the odd pigeon egg (or other goodies). 

 

The Magpies had a few babies this year as well. The little ones are flying and also come to Marisa's house for food. You should hear the racket they make. I'm probably the only one who doesn't mind their squawking.  They are cute with their little tails.

 

Wild pigeons galore. Ya, I feed them too because I'm a big suck!

 

A couple of weeks ago, a neighbor from down the street brought me a young pigeon they found in their back yard. It was a wild pigeon and some idiot clipped all of it's flight feathers.  Perhaps the retarded person thought they could clip the flight feathers and the bird would hang around their house and be a nice out door pet. Good in theory but HELLO!!! Cats ... outdoor cats .... lots of cats. That bird didn't stand a chance. It's okay, it's living in my pigeon coup now. It's a bit of a loner but I'm sure it'll make some friends eventually.

 

Avatar is still hanging in there. She doesn't really do anything too unusual. She shreds things, eats, poops and makes a mess in the kitchen. Still isn't into cuddling ... lol .. ya, like I'd be stupid enough to try. I already experienced the business end of that beak on my lip.  Mind you, the last time we clipped her beak and nails she was very passive, only made a half-hearted attempt to bite Andy.  It was pro baby too hot for her to make more of an effort.  lol

 

I've been enjoying my summer, sitting outside and reading novels and throwing the ball for the dog. I've decided that I am semi-retired. Okay, that's my excuse for reading novels and playing with the dog.  Novels, I still like fantasy and have gotten into reading paranormal romances. It's not enough for the guys to be good looking, I want them to also have special powers. Hey, if I'm going to fantasy land anyway  ... I may as well really go there.  Romance novels have changed quite a bit, you actually get some pretty decent stories ... kind of like you would in a good fantasy novel, only these ones have the attraction and sex thing. I'm not a huge reader of erotica but hot men with special powers ... well that's just yummy. 

 

I'm still into reading books on the brain, mind and mind technology. That's the part of me that isn't retired and needs to keep a few intelligent neural connections alive for my customers.

 

TV. I've been enjoying a few reality shows such as "So You Think You Can Dance" - It's a great show of physicality, grace and some really cool moves; "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" - that son of Gene's is cute (cougar bait) .. meow ..., Canada's Next Top Model - I like watching the posing and seeing what the pictures turn out like. I can live without all the drama from stupid personalities. I'm constantly surprised as to how or why anyone would want to be anything other than polite when on TV. They do not look cool being bitchy...they just look bitchy.  Confessions of a Match Maker is a good one also. The match maker gives the people hell for being such losers on dates and then she tells them how to act and they improve. Kind of like Nanny 911 for adults.  Yes, I love TV.

 

Well, I'm getting typers cramp ... so later.

The lawn in front of the house is in bad shape. Okay, it's on the "worst dressed list" in Homes and Gardens. I can sure grow a mean daisy .... man those things spread everywhere. Pretty flowers but they look really stupid sprouting up on your front lawn.  Hmmm so I decided that I would plant some ground cover Juniper and that would eliminate the need for grass. 

 

Digging up lawn sucks. It's hard work, so I settled with digging a couple of holes and planting the Juniper bushes. My cunning plan was/is to get Andy to dig up the rest of the lawn around the bushes. 

 

So I begin digging. Damn it's hot out!! I look over at the dog lying on the grass .... hmmmmm .... Kachina come here...good dog ... dig.   She made a half-hearted effort, dug a bit and then decided it was too hot for this kind of labor and decided that licking the dirt was more fun. So I waited a minute or two and tried again.  A bit more progress ensued and then she decided that it was great fun to pull the grass out with her teeth. Okay, that could be useful.  I know, I know ... visions of holes dug in places you don't want holes and grass pulled up everywhere except where you wanted it pulled up. It didn't happen. Kachina is as motivated to do this work as ... well...I am. 

 

Back to my cunning plan .... oh Andy ... handsome husband ....yooo hoo  (picture Andy running away).