On Friday Rye turned 13 years old! Sadly for him it also happened to be an agility trial for Indi and I so we didn't get to plan anything fun. He did get a special dinner though!
I took these pictures earlier this week.
My sweet sweet boy. All Rye wants is to make us happy. That is all he has ever wanted. And please please don't make too much noise!
and food! Give him lots of yummy food and he is a happy boy. He may bite your fingers when taking an item from your hand but he does not feel guilty about that.
And please remember to share the toy throwing with him! He may decide after you throw whether or not he will go after it but that is ok!
I took Indi to a skate park down town for some interesting backdrops and I really like how these came out! I got these before the teenagers appeared with their skateboards and took over the park.
I feel so lucky to have my Rye dog so healthy and youthful still! What a wonderful dog you are. Love you Rye!!!
Yesterday we took the dogs hiking at a beautiful place along the Snake River, about an hour from Boise. The river on one side and these massive cliffs on the other side where falcons nest and ravens soar. See the ravens? You can hear them as you walk along the cliffs.
That blue sky was just so perfect!
The rocks at the base of the cliffs are inhabited by rock chucks, a kind of marmot. They have this piercing whistle that really drives the dogs crazy! They can't get all the way up to where the rock chucks are but they hear them and know it must be some kind of animal.
Both dogs really had a fantastic time climbing rocks and peeking into hiding holes.
Neat moss covered rocks.
Giant squishy feet!
A piece of a tiny jawbone.
Indi stopped to listen when she noticed the pigeons cooing in the cliffs.
Last weekend we took the dogs to the Bruneau Sand Dunes and oh how much fun they had!
They ran and ran and RAN! Bunnies! Sand! BUNNIES!!!
We only actually saw one rabbit and it lost both dogs within 10 seconds but that just made them more excited.
Watching Rye it was hard to believe that he will be 13 next month! He doesn't always have this much enthusiasm but.....SAND and BUNNIES!
This weekend we went to visit our family in the mountains. When we arrived there was only a small amount of snow on the ground.
On Friday the guys went ice fishing while I took the dogs around the property to play.
Frisbee!!!
Later in the day I discovered the PERFECT wall for photos. Something about the lighting was just right. So I had a little fun (and used some Christmas doggy treats) dressing up Indigo. She is so patient and good!
That night it started to snow....
and we woke up Saturday to a winter wonderland! Well, just six or seven inches but it sure sparkled beautifully in the morning sun!
We took Indi snowshoeing with us but left Rye home since we didn't want him to get sore jumping through the snow.
This is a hill that Indi has hiked with me before where she was very nervous and stayed right near me the whole time. That was last fall and what a difference a year made! She is a much more confident hiker now. She ran her heart out following trails, sticking her face in the snow and just having so much fun. We really enjoyed watching her explore.
Me and my dog (thanks for taking the photo, Jason!).
When we came back I let Rye out to play a little. Each dog got their turns with the frisbee but Rye just cannot wait til it's his turn. He chases Indi barking at her the whole time. She thinks it's awesome.
My brother is playing with me! My brother loves me!
Rye just says GIVE me that frisbee!
Back inside where Indi climbed up in the "dog chair" and went instantly to sleep and then the weekend was over and we had to drive home. We never like to leave!
Today I was reading through a list of blogs written about aging in agility, here is a link if you wanted to go read. http://dogagilityblogevents.wordpress.com/aging/
It made me nostalgic and a little sad, thinking about Rye. I had to go watch some of his old agility runs on youtube. My goodness he was fast! Not always but sometimes! He was also nervous and that made him do things like run out of the ring to go find my husband on more than one occasion. A definite sign of stress. He had his moments of greatness though. Here is a favorite run.
Now we've gone so long without practicing that he can't weave 6 poles!
He sleeps very soundly. So soundly that I came home the other night from going out to eat at IHOP with sausages for the dogs, walked through the house to find him lying on his bed in the back room sleeping. I walked right up to him and held the sausage under his nose to wake him up. I wish I had my video camera! Quite adorable.
Even on our regular hikes he walks on the trail behind me more often than he goes out into the sagebrush.
I was starting to worry about him, his heart mainly. I took him to work for blood work and to have the vet listen to his heart. His murmur has not changed at all so that is great! He has no obvious arthritis, just less range of motion in his front wrists than normal. And his blood work came back completely normal. Very very happy.
So I guess he's just getting old. He'll be 13 in February.
I bought him a new toy, and Indi can't touch it. It stays in it's spot until we go to the park where Indi fetches her ball (over and over and over) and Rye plays with the Weiner Bear.
The Weiner Bear, body of a weiner dog and face of a bear...
Give me my Weiner Bear
An older video of Rye playing with a Kong frisbee. Definitely see a difference in energy! This was almost two years ago. Now he still does his adorable happy dance with a toy but for like 5 seconds and then he lays down with it.
Last weekend we took the dogs on a short vacation to Stanley, Idaho. We stayed in a hotel and hiked around Stanley Lake. Rye never once walked behind me on the trail. What is up with that? Is he bored of his home foothills that he has walked probably hundreds of times? Was he just invigorated by the new smells? Whatever the reasons, I was happy to see him having so much fun!
Last weekend we drove the dogs to Pocatello Idaho for Indi's fourth AKC agility trial. Along the way we stopped at Massacre Rocks state park to let the dogs run. Such a cool spot!
Rye really does not like warm weather. For one thing he doesn't and has never handled the heat very well. For another, it seems the only thing we do when it's hot is throw a toy in the water for that black beast sister of his. He watches. He looks forlorn.
Cool weather makes Rye HAPPY!
He may be 12.5 years old but he has not slowed down at all if it's cold enough to run!
Then, on to agility...
Indi has decided FOR SURE that agility is the BEST THING EVER. All summer I have asked her to stay in various places, cementing it into her brain. She knows it very well! At our agility teacher's house she can stay. At the river she can stay. At the park. For dinner. Backyard. When we use the practice jump ringside, she can stay! As soon as we enter the ring, she can't stay anymore. I have turned into one of those handlers who walks slowly away from their dog at the start line, hand up, palm out, repeating No, sit! Stay! Stay! No, sit, stay! and then she goes...
I KNOW that the best thing probably would be to take her off course and waste the run and entry fee when she does that. That maybe it would teach her that she has to stay. The thought of doing that just breaks my heart! I don't think I am strong enough! She loves it so much that all she wants to do is be able to GO and for me to stop her I think would deflate her more than a little. I can't!
Also related to staying, she is not very solid on her two on two off contacts. She can somehow stay on the table!
This weekend was worse than previous on the stay subject but the best we have done so far together!
Indi tried out Novice Fast and got a Q. Got a Q and a first place in her first Open Standard class and another Q and first in Standard on Saturday. We still don't have any Novice Jumpers legs! Friday she was one knocked bar away from qualifying and Saturday, her genius handler sent her over a wrong jump. Both were beautiful runs even so.
She is beyond fun to run with!
Here is a video of our best run, Saturday's Open Standard.
