One down, one to go

The prison demo last night went great. Phoenix worked well and, proving that he has ZERO judge of character, was a total schmooze during the meet and greet with the inmates. You'd have thought they were all his best buddies. That's my dog - gets snarly with a friendly golden retriever but adores criminals.

But first we had to get there. Remember that Nissan commercial from a few years back? The one where the mysterious little man in colored sunglasses says "Dogs love trucks"? Well, it's true. Phoenix thinks the Farmer's truck is ALL THAT. It's a Chevy Silverado, not a Nissan, but I guess it doesn't matter. Malinois love trucks.

I abandoned the notion of the seatbelt/harness thingie. The harness fit well enough but the strap that attached to the seatbelt wasn't nearly long enough and it wasn't adjustable. If I'd attached it, Phoenix would have been basically immobile. That didn't look comfortable at all so he ended up riding loose.

First he sat up and looked out the windows. Then he laid down. Then he gave me kisses and tried to crawl in my lap. (Fortunately we were still on the country roads at that point and I could stop and show him the error of his ways.) Then he sprawled out across the seat and put a paw on my leg and went to sleep. On the way home from the demo, he curled up in a little ball and didn't budge the whole trip.

OK, back to the demo. Before we went in, I had to have Phoenix's article bag inspected, as well as his treat bag and tug stick. The fellow who did the inspecting thought the metal scent articles looked highly suspicious. He counted them. I suppose he meant to count them before we left, too, but guess he forgot. We all got stamps on our hands that showed up under black light and had to be scanned out before we could leave.

It was a group affair, with about a dozen ICDOC members and their dogs. How's this for irony - people in ICDOC (Iowa City Dog Obedience Club) shirts giving a demo for people in IDOC (Iowa Department of Corrections) shirts. First we did a little obedience demo. Then we did a little agility demo. Then we had a meet and greet where the inmates could pet the dogs.

At the risk of totally creeping me out, one man not only remembered ME, he remembered JAMIE, who hasn't done the prison visit in four years. Most of the men were polite and appreciative. They talked about their dogs "on the outside." Truly, being locked up away from my dogs would a horrible punishment.

Yesterday, the inmates. Today, the Kiwanis Club. Tonight, Utility class.

Lots of riding in The Truck!

Busy week

C3PO went into the body shop this morning to get put back together after our deer-bashing incident. The Farmer is supposed to bring his pickup into town later this morning so I can get to interviews this afternoon for work. (Doing interviews for this job, not doing job interviews. There's a big difference.)

Tonight is my obedience club's annual visit to the local prison. We go every year and give an obedience and agility demo. It's a little freaky, going into a prison and giving a demo when there are armed guards standing around. Really makes me appreciate my freedoms as a citizen. And reminds me that robbing banks, shooting people, dealing drugs, etc. is a really bad idea.

Tomorrow, Phoenix and I are giving the program for the noon Kiwanis Club. Still scrambling to get that outline put together. There's a meal involved! Food is a definite motivator.

Tomorrow night, I have Utility class to teach. Lesson plans? What lesson plans?

This means Phoenix will get to ride in the Farmer's pickup a lot in the next few days. He has never done this before. The Farmer harbors some strange notion that his pickup should be a dog hair free zone. Whenever he brings that up, I just give him The Look and refrain from pointing out the mud, cow sh*t and heaven knows what else it is full of. It's definitely a cattleman's pickup. I think a little Malinois fur will improve it.

Since I'm not crazy about the idea of Nix riding "loose," I got a harness that hooks to the seatbelt. I really think he will just look out the window because that's what he loves to do in the van — lay in his crate and look between the front seats as we go down the road.

3PO is supposed to be done on Friday, just in time to go to a fun match at the DMOTC building on Saturday.

Sunday, I plan to STAY HOME, just to see what that's like.

Mystery photo

A box of cool stuff arrived in the mail yesterday.

Guess what's in all these little packages?

C'mon, guess!

But I can't tell you, even if you're right.

Cuz it's a surprise for a friend.

And sometimes she reads this blog.

Meme knows.

But she's not tellin'.

Right, Meme?

I'll tell ya in December.

Oooooooh, the suspense!

Stick a fork in us . . . we're done

Phoenix, Jamie and I just got home from our last obedience trial of the year. Yeah, there are a couple of other "local" trials we could still enter but at this point, I think our time and money will be better spent buckling down and training.

This weekend capped a wonderful, wild, surprising, disappointing, enlightening, joyful string of autumn obedience trials. Phoenix Q'd in Open B both days and did his stays without looking like a stressball. He made some good choices in the ring. He made some naughty choices in the ring. He tried hard on some things. He didn't try very hard at all on others. 

We had fun at the matches and had lots of laughs sitting ringside. The costume parade on Saturday was hysterical. I wonder how many of the dogs got even with their handlers today?

The club even offered a Highest Scoring Malinois prize and we won it! Okay, we were the only malinois there but still, that's not a prize you see offered at every show.

I'm not sure when we'll go back into the obedience ring. My goal is to be ready for Utility in the spring but right now I'm not sure how I'm defining "spring." 

Happy Halloween!

Fun photos

Paula snapped this picture with her cell phone
while in the Cleveland (?) airport.

I'm not sure if it means:
A) This is the reason why Phoenix acts the way he does in the ring.
B) I should START giving Phoenix coffee before we go in the ring.
C) I should STOP giving Phoenix coffee before we go in the ring.
D) I should give the coffee to ME before we go in the ring.

The general consensus was that anything labeled "Phoenix Coffee" should probably come with a warning.

Here's a pic of Phoenix's nieces and nephews. His sister Cayenne had a litter about a month ago, 9 bouncing baby mals. As Catherine points out, one of the items in this group is not the same as the others. Here, kitty, kitty!

(Photo courtesy of Catherine Shields, Carousel Malinois)

Stone soup

First, a bit of deer follow-up. Yes, I feed my dogs raw and I would have LOVED to strap that bad boy on my luggage rack and haul his sorry carcass home. Might have made it all worth while. Although no deer is worth $3,000, having about 100 lbs. of meat would have offset my deductible nicely.

But alas, it was a hit and run. It was pitch dark and the deer vanished after I whacked him. I don't know if he bounced back into the north ditch or if momentum carried him on across the road. It was, as they say, a dark and stormy night. I wasn't exactly in a position to go looking for him. Next time, I hit a deer, I'll do it in broad daylight so I can track him down.

On a tastier note, I made the First Official Pot Of Soup of Autumn yesterday. I'd ground some chicken for the dogs over the weekend and in the process of reorganizing the freezer, found a bunch of soup fixins just waiting to be fixed.

I don't have a specific soup recipe. I just throw stuff in the crockpot.

First, some beef stock from a roast.
It came complete with little bits of potato.

Veggies du jour.

Taters. Lots of taters.
Taters are a food group by themselves.
And I'm too lazy to peel them.

A little chopped up leftover beef roast.
A little chopped up leftover pork roast.
The pork roast was actually supposed to be training treats.
Sorry Phoenix.
Will you forgive me?

The spice of life.
I never cook with fresh onions.
Fresh onions are evil.
Dried onions are my friend.

I love my crockpot.
I seriously love my crockpot.
I might starve to death without it.

Oh yum.
Gimme a spoon and the bread and butter.
Then leave me alone.
I tend to food guard.

$#@! deer

I hit a deer on the way home from work last night. This was my second deer-bashing incident, my fourth deer total and my first buck.

Ironically, it happened on the exact same stretch of highway where I hit "the herd" 8 years ago. That time I took out 3 deer, all does, all at once. That time, one hit the grill, one hit the driver's side door and one hit the driver's side sliding door.

I don't know if last night's single buck-bashing was better or worse. One minute I'm driving down the road, the next minute THUMP! All I saw were antlers and then he was gone. I didn't spend a lot of time on the side of the road looking for him. Since there wasn't steam billowing from the radiator and no fluid was gushing out of anywhere and the tire wasn't scraping the wheel well (which no longer had its original shape), I drove home, using a lot of creative language.

Actually, I only used one word. A lot. But very creatively. I used it as a noun, verb and adjective.

When I took C3PO to the body shop for an estimate this morning, I learned a new word.

That word is "spendy."

As in, "Oh, an Acadia. That's going to be spendy."

I used my original word some more.

Then he told me I was the fourth person to come in this morning with deer damage. And that was at 9 a.m. Welcome to Iowa County, home of deer with suicidal rage.


Does this look like $3,000 damage to you? Me neither but I guess most of the front end has to be replaced. And some internal stuff, too.

Although the headlights still work and I got assurances it was safe to drive. Whew, I was wondering if I'd be able to go to Omaha this weekend. Really, you have to have priorities.

Does anyone else see the irony of driving approximately 30,000 miles a year to classes, matches, trials and seminars, only to hit a deer coming home from work? My first deer strike happened on the way to work. Clearly, the problem here is work.

So now I'm waiting for my insurance agent to get back to me and I'm waiting for a sheriff's deputy to get back to me because you are supposed to report any deer accident damage over $500. Good grief, a deer could just LOOK at your car and cause $500.