Did it work?

Honestly, I’m not sure. She’s previously met all the people who were at our house. But with the exception of two of the people, she doesn’t see any of them with any amount of regularity. They came in, she barked. The proceeded to the kitchen to eat and drink and pretty much ignored her. (Nice thing was, we didn’t even need to ask them to ignore her. They just did it. SMRT!) We only had people over for about 40 minutes, so she never really had a chance to get used to them and calm down completely, but she did stop barking as soon as they walked away. She wandered around with her ears back in nervous position and sniffed bums. Every once in a while she’d start barking a little, but would stop with a reassuring word from Dan or myself.

I can’t decide whether or not it helped. It definitely wasn’t the miracle cure I was hoping for, but I knew that wasn’t a realistic expectation. But was the improvement due to being hopped up on an herbal solution? Or was it the people completely ignoring her? I just don’t know. It’s worth trying again at another event, so we definitely will give it another go.

Stay tuned!

The Swissies got the short straw somehow and had to show at 8am. I was there around 7:15am. I’m not entirely sure how that happened.

Here’s the very handsome Robert.

Here are a few more. Robert is in the middle.

Of course I found some cute non-Swissies to photograph…

This guy was showing in the ring right after the Swissies. Can you say adorable?

Gorgeous Dobe!

And this is Lars. Lars and I became very good friends.

I asked his owner if I could take him home and she laughed. I don’t know if she realized I was serious. I was. Can you tell I have a thing for blue Danes?

I know I wasn’t the best photographer on Saturday. I was slacking a bit. I spent a fair amount of time shopping without the camera. And of course, I had to talk to people–that’s a big part of the fun for me. I love love love talking to people about Swissies. Can you tell?

TTFN!

Indy was a goof for a change. She daintily picked at it in her bowl…

Then proceeded to spread it all over the floor.

Don’t worry, she cleaned up after herself. No crumb left untouched.

We shared with Vasey, of course. Her name was on the cake too! I’m not sure she’s ever had cake before. But she was happy to eat it.

Beowulf being the pig that he is decided to show the ladies how one should eat cake. By putting the entire piece in your mouth at once.

His silly ears get in the way of the pictures. Darn ears.

Finally, we tried to pose the girls for a picture. They were not really in the mood…

Well, maybe just Indy wasn’t…

Happy Friday!

We will have cake from the Barkery, of course, and extra belly rubs for all. Including Beowulf. He’d just get angry and pee somewhere if we didn’t give him love, too.

(Yes, I know it’s not a dog.)

This is what goes on most days.

And a little of this.

Throw in a touch of this.

At least 30 minutes of this.

Still more of this.

And then a smidge of this.

And then a pinch of that.

Fun!

So I’m trying something new.

I bought an herbal supplement for her. It contains fully concentrated herbal extracts of Skullcap, Valerian, Chamomile, Ginko, and Passion Flower with several flower essences for emotional balance in a solution of 10% glycerin, 24% alcohol, and 66% spring water. I was just give it to her starting the day before we have company, but then I thought better of it and I’m going to try it a little more long-term. She gets about 20 drops of it in her food 2-3 times per day.

She’s been on it for a few days (although I’m just now realizing that I forgot to give her the evening dose) and I haven’t really seen a change. But in all fairness, we haven’t had any people over. Just dogs.

I’ll let you know how things go over the next several weeks.

I wasn’t sure how Indy would behave – I’ll admit I was a bit concerned about her recall ability and hoped that Basja’s influence would help. I was pleasantly surprised how good she was. She actually came when we called, which was great. She got the hang of it pretty quickly, and was nice to all the dogs out there.

It’s really best if I just show you, I think

Basja kept finding balls throughout the park. We’d sometimes catch her with 2 in her mouth.

And then the rampaging started.

Then we were joined by Bentley the puppy.

His human was glad to have big dogs for him to play with.

Indy chased him for a while.

I just love Bentley’s face here.

Indy looking all pretty.

They made other friends, too.

Nom.

I’m not sure Basja needed to jump over this dog. She could have just stepped.

And then, once again, the photographer’s hands got cold.

I must mention that I was very pleased with our experience at the park. We’ve avoided them because of some not-great experiences in the past, mainly with people not watching their dogs. But everyone here was involved and careful. I think we’ll be back.