a handful

 Our daily routine involves something to tire out the puppy physically. Weekends we can almost always go on a hike of some kind somewhere. Weekdays I still take her to work with me and I take her out throughout the day to throw a ball and lately I've been practicing with a single agility jump there as well.
A first attempt at a jumping shot.

I've also started taking her to the park after work to throw her frisbee since it seems she is the most insane when we first come home. This helps a little to curb that enthusiasm!

I call this "Indiglow in the dark". Terrible picture but I had to try!

There is a little tree at this park that we've been using for "out" practice. We started close and I can now send her out around the tree from about 15 feet away, right or left, right side being easier for some reason. I send her out, she comes back in to my side, heel, turn, throw the frisbee and she's off like a 65 pound bullet.

I am using the advise given on one of Denise Fenzi's blogs (again). That of "placement of reward". Indi tends to wrap around my front when we heel, she wants to see my face and watch my frisbee hand. Her advise for this was a left hand turn (her head is turning away from me) and then throw the reward. Heel, heel, heel, TURN, throw toy. It feels like I am helping her get unbent somehow. It has definitely helped! But now she has started adding a turn where she thinks I might tell her to turn, anticipating. I am being too predictable!


So this snow we've had isn't too big a deal. It has kept us from doing any contact training though. It has canceled our agility classes too, booo. It makes for some beautiful hikes in the foothills though!

Boise in the background. We don't normally have this much snow for this long on the ground in Boise.

What we really disliked was the ice that came last week! A night of freezing rain and we woke up to the thickest, hardest to scrape ice on the windshields and roads and all that soft snow was covered in a layer of solid ice.
That meant no hikes in the hills, no frisbee at the park, not even any walks around the block!  Whatever is a certain black angel to do at such a time?

We can do obedience in the house, hiding games, throw food down the hall, it all helps a little but what she really wants is something involving RUNNING.
We have also resorted to the chews.
I found some cow's ears that seem to last a long time, like up to a half an hour. Bully sticks don't seem to last as long as I'd think they would but we use them sometimes. She does chew the antler we have but gets bored with it after not too long. I put stuff in kongs and offer those sometimes. Tonight I made a doggy quiche with turkey burger, eggs, ground parsley and turmeric, added for the crazy nutritive values it has (all mixed together and then baked).  That combo worked nicely shoved into a kong! The kitties loved it too.

This is Indi's preferred place to chew a bone, my lap. If she can't be on top of me chewing her bone, she likes to press it up against me while she chews it.

And one final shot, this was last weekend when I wasn't able to tire her out and decided it would be a good time to paint a little table I found at the thrift store.

Apparently No, leave it, means, Yes, touch it!