second novice rally submission
we had a bit of trouble last night at class (another dog had peed in the building earlier / she wasn't used to the videographer moving). we managed to work through it with a bit of training and get another great submission ready for scoring. echo is an absolute delight to work with!
gopro and a chest strap.
she's too tiny for the dog harness they make!
enjoy a 40-minute run/walk in the woods with jean
i told my partner that if he charged up the gopro, i'd make a video for him when i took the dog out to the local nature preserve. turns out it makes some nice crunch-crunch sounds.
ah, then maybe uncovering is so that i can pull them all out, hahaha.
i have photos somewhere on my phone, but we began clearing the back section of our yard for the eventual meadow installation in a year or so! we raked up all the leaves/sticks/junk and got about 1/3 of it covered in cardboard to kill everything off. i need to read back over my materials, but i think the idea is to uncover for a month every few months to let the weed seeds germinate, then cover it back up to kill them off.
actual seeding will happen in early october of next year, likely with a mix from prairie moon.
ooblets is one of my favorite in this genre. it's got a great soundtrack, the humor is spot-on, and it's got an anti-capitalist message.
teaching silly tricks entertains us both
a few clips from jean's treibball training session this afternoon. she was actively afraid of the ball a few days ago, so this is awesome progress!
firewatch is a personal favorite.
oh yeah, no dogs in the front yard thank goodness!
white oak!
we had to cut down a maple in this spot last year, as it was in danger of collapsing on our house. i planted this three-foot-nothing white oak to take its place, and i'm excited to watch it grow! the soil is super rich and well-draining right here since we had the stump ground down and left all the mulch to decompose. basically black gold.
edit: seeing all those invasive privets in the background.
I think posting about your plan would be a good starting point for some conversations and might encourage some other folks to emulate you
once i actually start doing the work, i definitely will!
Did they talk to you about solarizing next spring using tarps?
they did, but this area of the yard is pretty shady, so the guy leading the workshop specifically recommended using cardboard and mulch for maximum annihilation.
the plan itself isn't that difficult, just takes a lot of time to kill all the invasive plants off so the native plants have a chance to grow. you completely clear the ground first, let the invasive seeds germinate, kill them again, then seed it with native grasses and plants (prairie moon has a lot of US mixes, so i'll probably use them). you won't get blooms for at least two years, i think. and you need to cut everything down to about 1.5 feet the first fall to get the invasive plants before they go to seed. unfortunately, that means you're also cutting down the plants you want to grow, so they take another year of seeding before things really get going, but they should help keep out the invasives at that point.
i have a Meadow Plan for the last ~20 feet of our back yard now. first step is laying down cardboard and mulch and leaving it there until next may.
i'm picking up a white oak tree sapling on saturday to plant in the same spot where we had to cut down a big ol' maple in our front yard (it was dying a slow death and a danger to our house).
new skill for both of us: scent work!
i started this online scent work course about a week ago, and it has been a lot of fun! i'm used to more showy dog sports (agility, rally obedience, dock diving, etc), so finding something chill has been really eye-opening. you can see right around the 1:45 mark where she sniffs the other colander, realizes there's no scent, and immediately plops her nose into the correct one! i'm just so amused and delighted.
"what remains of edith finch" and "gone home." waiting for the right rainy day to play them.
wingspan
i love both the physical and digital versions of this game. 🕊️
i'm attending a meadow-making workshop tomorrow, and i'm hoping to learn a lot about what to do with the little plot of land we take care of. i would love to do some fall planting!
haha, no worries! i have three dogs total, so even i call them by the wrong names. ;)
echo unfortunately has a bum wrist, so she can't do any sustained running without hurting herself. jean is the speed gremlin (but she rides in a backpack when i take her cycling).
teaching echo to ride in the bike trailer
started a few days ago getting her acclimated while i walked beside the bike, and we took our first trip around the block today. she stood up a few times, but for the most part was comfortable lying down.
she's clearly the most popular of the bunch (and she knows it).
speed gremlin got a big ribbon today!
jean has earned 500 points in fast CAT since she started in february, so she got her DCAT title today (first was BCAT at 300 points). very proud of her! it has improved her recall and behavior around other dogs so much. 😊
it's the dogs! i love dogs, but having them jump through the window destroyed me.
if you want to know how to get back, pick a side (i chose left) and always put torches on that side going down. to come back up, keep the torches on your right. 🔥
the original resident evil. couldn't even get through the first 15 minutes before i threw the controller across the room. i don't play scary games anymore, but i love watching other people play!
silent hill was super fun to watch.
photos from jean's most recent fast CAT (100-yard dash)
this is what peak performance looks like. 😎
but seriously, this lil' chihuahua mix runs like a greyhound!
photos by stirling hasen.
some heelwork training with echo
we have a looong way to go, but i like to keep video records of even the not-so-good practice sessions. she's really disengaged with me for a big portion of this video (probably because it's our first time doing this outdoors). hoping to eventually get her into rally obedience. :)
jean running fast CAT
it's her absolute favorite activity in the world!
thank goodness you’re here!
thankgoodness.game Thank Goodness You're Here!
An absurd comedy slapformer set in the bizarre Northern English town of Barnsworth. As a traveling salesman, take the time to see the sights and meet the locals, who are very eager to give you a series of increasingly odd jobs...
i’m really vibing with this game. absurd, casual, sometimes disturbing fun. slapping and jumping are the only actions, and it’s very england.
took the pups out for some creek time
echo loves the creek so much. definitely her most favorite activity. also my first time using sniffspot (private dog park; this one was about three acres and fully fenced in), and it felt like we weren't fenced in at all! there was a little walking trail and everything.
community canine graduate!
we had graduation last night! we did some rally practice since all the dogs had already passed all the test items, and echo loved it. could not get her to look at the camera because she loves to look at me always, haha. very proud of this rescue pup who has exceeded my expectations when it comes to training. she really is the dog i've wanted since i was a teenager. ❤️
mosquito bucket of doom
sidewalknature.com Mosquito Bucket of Doom
Mosquito season is here! Instead of spraying pesticides onto our entire yards—and onto fireflies, ladybugs, bumblebees, and butterflies—why not kill *only* mosquitoes? But first: let’s PREVEN…
ordered some tablets to make a few of these after i saw the concept recommended on a local forum. can't wait to murder millions of (mosquito) children. 🦟
echo's AKC novice trick title submission
going to collect all the silly certifications for fun with this dog.
jean got her first qualifying agility score!
this was always my goal with her, so i'm pleased as punch! i remember my agility trainer giving me the most "what are you doing with this dog?" look so many times, haha.
echo (border collie) photobombing loki (australian shepherd)
echo earned her CGC certification!
the canine good citizen test consists of ten items:
- accept a friendly stranger
- sit politely for petting
- accept ears and feet touched, plus a brush
- walk on a loose leash
- walk through a crowd
- sit, down, and stay
- come when called
- react appropriately to another dog
- react appropriately to a distraction
- stay with another person for three minutes
this is something i try to get with all my dogs, but my little dog definitely did not pass back when she took it as a yearling. very proud of how far echo has come since she's come to live with me—hard to believe that was only about three months ago!
jean earned her first title!
her fastest time this weekend was 9.56 seconds (21.40 mph). i’m so proud of her for running despite the cold (and rain on the first day). we wrapped her up in a towel right up to the gate the first day because it was so miserable, and on the second day she had her sweater plus i held her inside my fleece, hehe.
we should get the professional video back in a week or two!
training my chi mix jean to love her collar (+ some fun tricks)
the backstory is that jean has gotten really head shy over the years, to the point where she would run away anytime i got her collar out. lo and behold, turning this into a "trick" worked like a charm. now she's happy and excited every time she sees her collar, and it has become one of our best recall tools.
you'll notice i also often treat her when i take the collar off, so she wants to stick around after i remove her collar rather than bolting away from me. this is especially important since she's a sporting dog (agility and fast CAT).
at the end are some tricks she already knows, just for fun. :)