December in the woods

 An evening walk through the woods in the rain tonight. It smelled so good. So nice to be outside with my dogs. I love to watch them run.

The only way that Rye is showing his age is in the house. He sleeps more. Otherwise he is still a crazy bird dog. He runs and runs. He pointed some white river foam scum tonight. Amber almost believed him and honored his point for about a second then realized the mistake.

When we got home the dogs ate dinner and I sat down at the computer. Amber brought me her squeaky green dog and stared at me for a while before going to sleep on the couch. Rye is fast asleep beside me, his cheeks are puffing in and out, making little whining noises. Dreaming of that elusive foam...

an antler for Christmas

I found this shed deer antler on a hike a few years ago. I like to collect bones and things like that so it has been living on my mantle ever since bringing it home. Every once in a while I catch Amber sitting in front of the fireplace, just looking at it.

A funny story to go with it: I had been dog sitting a friend's two bostons and she had just come over to pick them up. Her younger boston was showing off, playing with one of Amber's toys and Amber was watching her, whining a little, wanting her toy back, but she's not one to take it away from another dog. So she walked over to the mantle, reached up and took the antler down and brought it to her bed to chew on! I know she's been wanting to do that ever since I brought it home but she knew she wasn't supposed to have it.


I've been reading about what a good chew an antler is for a dog, it's not supposed to splinter, lasts longer than other chews and dogs usually love them. I was thinking of ordering some from a person online because I just didn't want to ruin my pretty antler! Well, I decided that was silly since I already had one. Merry Christmas, Amber.

Rye will chew on something for a few minutes and then give up, rawhides, bones, anything, he's just not that into them so I didn't think it would hurt his feelings if I didn't give him one.
Amber is thoroughly enjoying her present.

 She's finally learned to "hold". It took her a while, she didn't want to for the longest time.
I didn't intend for this to look as creepy as it came out, it was late at night and my camera doesn't do so well in low light.

Rocks and ice

We took the dogs to a new trail yesterday. Lots of really cool rock formations.

Both Amber and Rye are quite the mountain goats, though Amber maybe a little more. I can point to a rock and ask her to get up on it and she'll stay for pictures.

When I ask Rye to stay for a picture he hangs his head low and does his impersonation of a vulture. Like this:

 
Most of his other pictures turn out like this.

This is the base of a really cool frozen creek/waterfall. 

Recreational squirrel watching

The Vizsla has weak elbows!

And by The Vizsla I mean my Vizsla, not all Vizslak.

We survived the Pat Hastings Structure in Action seminar! Amber was evaluated and found to have weak elbows, and legs that are slightly longer than what they should be. Both of which could be why she injures herself so frequently. A vet was in attendance to help answer some questions and after looking her over asked me when Amber was spayed. Well, she was spayed quite young, at 5 months. I knew nothing about dogs then and just thought I wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible. I wonder how much that early spay has affected her.

Also, the vet that was there was feeling around on Amber's neck and shoulder area and asked if she had ever had a neck injury. She has. She once ran full force into a tree chasing a squirrel. With her head. The vet said she was pretty stiff and could possibly do with some massage and acupuncture.

I was stupid and didn't ask all the questions I should have. I wish I had asked what her opinion on Amber doing agility was, what I could do to strengthen her elbows, how these things might affect her later in life, and what she thought would  be the best thing to prevent injuries considering Amber's weaknesses.

Miss legs in her new coat. My co-worker was going to throw this away since the zipper was broken so I took it and turned it into a Vizsla coat. It's Talbots.