Testing a new camera

I had been dreaming about taking the dogs on hikes for as long as I had Brandy ( 7 years). Brandy and I used to go to a local park occasionally but it didn't last long. It seems that the only time I truly own is from 5-7 am while everyone is still sleeping. Driving to the park at that hour doesn't seem sensible, if the park was withing the walking distance, I would have probably done it, but driving 20 min each way seems too long especially when it's not daylight until 6am even when the days are at it longest.

One of the few things I really miss from Russia is long summer days, I don't really miss long winter nights ( I know they do have to come together, unfortunately), but the fact that it can be still daylight at almost 11pm is wonderful when you have to train dogs and you have no training building and a tiny house:-) I could have trained them after kids are in bed and the temps had dropped.

The one of the reasons, I think, why I never really went hiking is lack of time. The kids were too small  and even if I took them with me, then I would have to leave the dog at home. Between my dog classes and kids gymnastics , which is pretty much every day, the only time we have to do any other things are Sundays. Leaving the house for two hours during that time seems very selfish, not to mention that at least occasionally the laundry needs to be done and cleaning bathrooms once in a blue moon wouldn't be a bad idea either.

This year I was starting to revive thoughts about hiking, but now I have to take 3 dogs on a hike. I dont' really fond of the idea walking all three dogs in the woods. I would have done it if I knew I will be all alone:-), but now days I have a constant fear of running into some people with loose and out of control dogs, so I really do not want to be put in this situation. I do not mind when people have their dogs off leash, even that it's against the law, as long as they understand that not all dogs appreciate being jumped on by some strangers so they keep their dogs away form other dogs. Unfortunately it seems that the mentality of majority of the population is that dogs need to make other doggy friends and people don't even bother asking if the owner of another dog is ok with it. Oh well, off the soap box.

Now that kids are older I am thinking that I want to start taking them and my husband hiking. Not to mention the fact that this way we can take all three dogs with us without any worry and I don't have to feel guilty leaving someone at home:-)

I like taking pictures, so having a camera on hikes is a must. I love my Canon D20 but it needs it's own backpack. If the kids are coming with us, I will need to have a backpack full of water and snacks and maybe even towel or two if we go to a creek. Taking yet another backpack for a camera doesn't seem exciting. Then I remembered that my husband got me a point and shoot camera for my birthday two years ago.

He really made a mistake with that camera. That Christmas he got me my Canon 20D and an awesome lens, that got me really excited. Then the next month he got me a small point and shoot camera. He really should have done it the other way around.:-) Needless to say this small camera was laying in the closet - never touched. I pulled it out and took it with me on the dog walk last night. To my huge disappointment I couldn't take a single decent shot.  After almost two hours of trying different settings I was ready to throw it in the trash. It was infuriating. I guess no one should really transition from DSLR to a point and shoot camera:-) I am sure this camera takes acceptable photos in the bright sunlight, the problem is that it cannot take pictures of the things I want to take pictures of - my dogs in the woods:-) The light is too low and it slows down the shutter speed to the point that everything is very blurry.
After playing with it for two days this is the best I manage to do:

Belle exploring the creek. In case a little bit of sunlight in just this spot helped.

This week had been crazy hot 94F+ with high humidity. Mozart seem to have found a solution to this problem - as soon as we come to the creek he plumps himself into it and doesn't move for a few min. Of course it's helpful that he can lay in the puddle and chew on the sticks at the same time. The thing he seems to like the most in this world:-)

we are back .. maybe....

Things had been crazy busy.  Last summer I spent preparing Brandy for our utility debut as well as finishing our CDX. By the time we had finished the UD (in  5 attempts) I was so burned out that I didn't really want to train at all, plus it was November, the days were short and even if I really wanted, training wouldn't have been really possible in the evening.
Mozart had finished his retrieve class and we had started working on articles in the fall.
Poor Belle was kind of abandoned outside of our usual Thursday night classes where Kid#1 was working her.
Come spring of 2013 and I had started trying to bring myself back into training and exploring past UD opportunities although not very successfully. We've been in the ring maybe 4 times and NQed all 4 times.  Brandy needs lots more work around barking and out of control dogs. Yeah, like that's easy to find in a control environment:-)

I was looking forward to summer in hopes that I would have more time, when I realized that it's already July and I am still hoping, so I went to a book store and got myself a famous "moleskin" notebook. I didn't really know it was famous until I bought it though. It came with a story telling how some of the famous writers and artists favored it in the past. For 2 weeks I had been pretty good about keeping my training log. I tried keeping my training log on my phone, found a couple of useful applications, but I realized that I really miss the pen and paper. It's amazing how much more productive I get when I actually creating a training plan for the day the night before, even if I do not manage to work on all of the exercises I planned on, it's still pushes me to try hard to stick with the plan.  When you have a three dogs that have to be actively trained I can't imaging doing it any other way.

Here is a video of one of Brandy's open runs. Unfortunately I have no videos of our Utility runs.

Mozart working on his retrieve

Mozart is working on commitment to retrieve.

Brandy and I trying to hit as many fun matches as we can in attempt to fix that evil stays problem. In addition we are working on putting our utility performance together in hopes that we will get those two CDX legs soon. Here is our almost qualifying run from past sunday. As Brandy's understanding of the directed jumping exercise improving, I've decided that it's time to start teaching her to perform the exercise with signals, in hope to make her more focused while she is sitting at the "go out" spot and waiting for the command. I've started this morning practically from scratched and dropped the verbal command. Because all this time I had been using voice and signal, the signal should be familiar to her so I hope that we'll progress faster this time.

Dog Show

We went to a dog show today. Brandy and Belle got groomed. Belle and Bologna got their ears glued.
And I took some pictures. And I just realized that I was such an idiot, got so tired that I forgot to work on stays and signals with Brandy.:-(
Oh well.
Here are some pictures:
Belle

 Bologna

Some pictures of dogs from the show:

it's been a while

I am having really hard time keeping up with the blog with everything that is going on  in my life. I'll just keep on trying.
Brandy and I trying to make a comeback into obedience ring so last Sunday we went to the match and entered open and utility. Brandy did pretty well in both. The only big mistake she made in utility was her getting confused on the "come" signal and trying to get in heel position instead of the front. It's funny how she didn't make the same mistake in our practice sessions before the match, or after the match. Utility is a hard class and I can clearly see how all those distractions at the match break her concentration. hopefully weather will keep on getting nicer and we will have some opportunities to practice signals with a lot of distractions in some public places.
In open Brandy decided at one exercise to finish to the left, rather than to the right ( walking behind me into the heel position). I wouldn't really mind it if she made it nicely into the heel position, but of course she ended up horribly crooked. Which means we need to work on the left finishes a lot, in case she decides to do the same things at the trial in hopes that she will at least make it straight.
We had to give up on our Utility class for now because of time constraints, so we have to practice on our own. Luckily the weather was very nice to us and it allows me to work on the utility exercises during my lunch break.
We have so much work ahead of us that at times it's pretty overwhelming and we really need to finish our CDX, which means that we need to get two more legs. Sigh.. I kind of gave up on practicing open exercises for time being, at this point I will be happy to just qualify and we can work on improving our heeling later when the weather gets better, but  we still have to worry about those pesky stays. This weekend we are going to a local dog show and I hope that I will find an opportunity to practice stays and signals in the show environment.

Mozart on the other hand is getting bored. While I was out walking Brandy he decided to go shopping. He is going to get in trouble one day for sticking his head where it doesn't belong. Luckily for him we have started working on formal retrieve, so soon he will be carrying those bags for me in his mouth:-)

I ate your homework

Thanks to our friends Sam and Rugby, Belle got some clothes, that was too big for Rugby, to keep her warmer on the cold days. Yesterday I managed to find few min to take Belle to the school bus stop that picks up Charlotte for school. I thought this t-shirt was very appropriate for the occasion.