Indy the Swissy
GSMD National in Springfield
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
Yes, the National event was last week. Yes, I am just writing about it now. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame.
The event was held in Springfield, Illinois at the fairgrounds. Because I have a few things coming up that require me to take vacation, I wasn’t able to make it for the entire week. That’s ok, though. I didn’t have any dog to show, and we haven’t been competing in any working events. (Yet.)
Indy and I drove down on Wednesday night and made it early enough to see some of the Top 20 event. The building was quite warm, and the area outside was very wet and muddy from all the rain they’d had during the week. We stayed for a little while and spoke to a few people, then headed back to the hotel.
Getting into the hotel room for the first time (with Indy) was rather interesting. I had already carried our stuff into the room before I took the last load (computer bag, purse) and the dog. Well, we got to the room, and Indy decided she didn’t want to cross the threshold. She braced herself on the ground, pulled, and was out of her collar. As she ran around the parking lot freaking me out, my hotel room door was wide open with her leash and collar on the floor. In hindsight, I should have picked that up first and then hauled arse to get Indy, but I wasn’t thinking too clearly. I just reacted as I was worried about cars in the lot. We played chase for a bit. I caught her by the scruff once, then lost her and caught her again. My (cheap but favorite) Crocs sandals were muddy and ripped. Yup, ruined. But I did finally get her in the door after much embarrassment and perhaps a bit of anger. Go figure, nobody helped.
After things calmed down a bit, we wandered around the grounds and ran into a few people. We met a cute Entlebucher named Kip. Yes, I want to steal him. And I learned that his breed is pronounced “entleebucher.” I still want to steal him.
The next morning, we showed up for the “how to” weight pull event, and then watched the weight pull. I’ve never been able to make one of the Lake Shore Club pulls before, so this was great. I was able to try on a harness and determine what size Indy wears. I wanted to get her to pull the big cart since we’ve tried tires and other smaller things, but I didn’t want to do it during the event because I thought that would stress Indy a bit too much for her first time. Well, that never happened. I’ll get her at the next Lake Shore event…
It was a lot of fun to watch the event. I took some pictures (to follow) and pretty much passed Indy around to strange people as much as possible. Well, I guess only one of them was actually a stranger to her. She did very well. A wonderful Swissy named Bridger (check out the skijoring article for more about him and his human), won the event pulling 4009.8 pounds, which is over 35 times his body weight. It was fantastic watching the two of them–they are a great team.
So, I did take a few pics. The lighting was poor, and I have been too lazy to touch them up. My apologies. But I don’t want to wait any longer to post, or it just won’t happen.
Here’s Monty in the “intro to” part of the day. They start them off on a smallish tire to get them used to the harness and having something move behind them.
Indy and her nervous ears posing.
Our friend Tank resting between pulls.
People will do all sorts of things to get their dog to pull.
Moose Moose talking back.
Here’s Louie and his human. Brian is trying to convince Louie to pull. It was Louie’s first weight pull event.
Here’s Bridger and Teresa after the record breaking pull. I cannot take credit for this picture…
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading.
Dog Park Trip
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
We had one of our favorite guests this weekend – Basja the Blue Dane. Since the weather was gorgeous on Sunday, we opted for a morning at the off leash park (Katherine Legge Memorial Park) with our Swissy friend, Vasey.
Basja and Vasey spent a few days with each other back in February. Remember when we were dog sitting for all the people fortunate enough to spend time in Hawaii? So they know each other. They did the whole air kiss thing upon meeting.
Of course there was butt sniffing with each other and the new dogs they met.
And there was general silliness and playing.
And of course, Indy poses for pictures. We have her trained well.
Diego the Dane was fascinated with Vasey.
I know this is a boring pic, but it’s just to show you that a lot of people were out at 8am on Sunday at the dog park.
Diego kept coming back to Vasey.
Indy doing her kangaroo impression.
Chew toy? Or another dog?
Tobias the DDB with Indy.
Please tell me why my girl dog loves rolling in wet grass so much?
This is Fred the Newf. He apparently likes kids a lot. As in jumps on them and knocks them over. So he was leashed since there were quite a few.
If there’s a Basset, I will take his/her picture.
Our esteemed weekend guest.
Why is it large dogs are attracted to Beagles?
One last quick romp…
Then it was time for home. The park is no longer considered off leash at 9am. Sad. But the dogs were happy and tired.
Thanks for looking!
Silly Swissy Stuff
Friday, May 14th, 2010 | Indigo | No Comments
I haven’t had too much exciting to post on lately. I will endeavor to have a more interesting, dog-centered life.
In the meanwhile, you get a silly Swissy story.
For the longest time, Indy would not go into the upstairs bathroom. She would go into the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom, which have the same tile floor, and more of it. I always found it odd because the upstairs floor is EXACTLY THE SAME. A few months ago, she got brave again and started venturing in. It’s nice to have company sometimes, right? (Is that TMI?)
I was in my office the other day shortly after I got home and she was whining and crying. I figured that Beowulf was in her way, had her bone, or perhaps a toy she wanted. Upon investigation, I found her stuck in the bathroom on the rug unable to move. Did the floor become lava or something? I finally got her to exit, but she was so freaked out, she made herself slip.
Swissies are nut jobs.
We did it!
Monday, May 3rd, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
Yup! We participated in what I think was my slowest 5K ever. Good thing it wasn’t timed…
We were very lucky. The weather on the lake front on Saturday was fantastic. I got there around 8am, got a nice parking spot that would let me avoid most of the traffic on the way out, and was enjoying near 70 degree temps. By the time the walk started at 9am, most people (including me) had removed their warm layer of clothing. I think the weather made the event more attended than last year. This is just the area away from the registration tent. It’s not even where all the free stuff was.
This is Zera, a 4 year old girl Swissy, and part of her human, before the walk.
We walked with Lucy, a gorgeous Plott Hound mix, Zera and Vasey. It was not easy getting a picture of them together.
We came pretty close to a posed shot with just the three Swissies.
I think we were near the middle of the pack when the hike started at 9am.
It really was a gorgeous day.
Indy was interested in every Basset that we saw. Go figure.
Around the half-way point, we stopped to see if any of the dogs would play in the water.
Everyone did go in, but there was no romping around. This was actually Indy’s first time in the water. I let her go in a little bit and didn’t push the swimming part. Heck, it was Lake Michigan on May 1st. The water was still quite cold.
The funny thing is that for the rest of the day, Indy was super tired. It was only 3 very slow miles, and it wasn’t warmer than 75 degrees. It must have been all the people and other dogs that wore her out.
Thank you to everyone who supported us and the Anti-Cruelty Society!
Bark in the Park
Friday, April 30th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
Tomorrow is our annual fundraiser for the Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago. They are a large no-kill shelter, and this is a major fundraiser for them.
Team Swiss Lick is in the top 5 teams for amount raised right now! If you are interested in donating to our team, you can donate through our First Giving page, which you can find here.
It’s supposed to be a nice day tomorrow, assuming the rain stays in the evening/early morning hours like it’s supposed too… Check back next week for pictures!
Galena Weekend
Monday, April 26th, 2010 | Dogs | No Comments
I will first get the disappointing news out of the way.
There are no pictures. That’s right, none.
The weather was cloudy and raining pretty much the entire time we were there. Not good for pictures at all.
I’ll admit I was a bit nervous or apprehensive about going. This was our first trip in 7 years that we took without Gryffin. He was always such a big part of our lives that I really wasn’t sure how it would go without him.
Oddly enough, it went really well.
Indy and Beowulf were actually fantastic in the truck on the ride out. I’m used to Indy being great in a vehicle, but not Beowulf. The sleeping part of the trip worked extremely well. Beowulf is usually on the bed (Alex would be there too…), and Indy and Gryffin would find places on the couches behind us as we use an air mattress out there. It would be normal to be woken up with a punch/kick/paw to the head/throat/you name it. That was Gryffin’s thing. Or he’d wake up and smack his lips for 20 minutes. While it certainly goes without saying that I would rather he’d be alive and well with us, the weekend went really well. I really didn’t expect it. Although I didn’t expect a disaster, either.
Yes, I was a little sad now and then. But it really seemed that when I was sad, Indy and Beowulf would do something incredibly cute or cuddly to make me happy.
It worked.
UGH!!!!
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 | Dogs | No Comments
Guess what happened to me this morning?
Come on, guess!
OK, I can’t hear you, so I will just assume you’ve thought about it for a second.
I. STEPPED. IN. DOG. POOP.
WITH. BARE. FEET.
I can’t come close to describing the horror of this morning. After stepping in loosely-formed dog excrement, I hopped across the house on one foot to the kitchen, wiped off my foot with paper towels, hopped into the bathroom there and started the shower. Lucky for me we have a removable shower head, so I was able to clean off my foot (it got between my toes) without requiring a full shower.
I did seriously consider going back to bed until tomorrow to start fresh. But honestly, I’m not sure that would help wipe the horror from my memory.
*SIGH*
What do you think it takes…
Monday, April 19th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
…to get Indy tired?
That is a serious question, because unless she’s wearing a pack with weights, I have no clue.
We met up with Vasey and one of her humans again for a nice, long hike perfect (other than the terrain) for pack hike training. The location was Waterfall Glen, which is right by Argonne Labs. Actually, I think the long trail we hiked (9.5 miles) may actually go around Argonne. It was cooler and we didn’t wear a pack this week. Indy had a couple of scabs in her front driver side “arm pit” that may have been from the pack the weekend before, so we went without it. I’m guessing that’s why she was still energetic at the end.
For some reason, Indy wasn’t tired the rest of Saturday. We did that hike in 3 hours. Heck, I burned over 1100 calories just walking at a good clip. But was little Miss Swiss tired? Nope. She spent some time barking and attacking us in the yard and not resting in general. She got another walk (short) on Sunday and spent more time attacking us and the yard tools. And she was a lot of help to Dan while digging holes for new shrubbery. But tired did not seem to happen.
I have somehow created a monster.
Words
Friday, April 16th, 2010 | Dogs | No Comments
I read this morning that dogs can learn about 250 words. I’m not sure if that’s true for Indy, but I started thinking about it. I think Alex understood full sentences, but the others definitely know words. I feel compelled to list them for some reason.
Food
Eat
Walk
Truck
Down
Sit
Stand
Come (well, maybe)
No
Good
Bad
Treat
Quiet (again, debatable)
Out
Stay (on a good day)
Ride
Paw
Hmmm, that doesn’t seem to be 250. I guess you can add their names to it. Then maybe some phrases. I’m not sure how many of the words they know, or if they understand the cadence or tone.
Do you wanna go for a…
Who wants to eat
Who wants a treat
Sit pretty
Time for dinner
Kennel up
I’m curious what other people’s dogs know.
Pack Hike Training
Monday, April 12th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
With the gorgeous weather we had this weekend, we were lucky enough to get a 9 mile training hike in on Saturday with Indy’s BFF, Vasey. We started out around 8:30am with about 50 degree weather. Maybe it was a little cooler… But it was sunny and a little breezy out.
Since I haven’t done much weight training with Indy recently, we stayed at a consistent weight (10lbs) throughout the entire walk. Vasey has been doing much more training, so she started out with 20lbs and worked her way down to 12lbs. In a pack hike, the dog must carry 20% of their total body weight in their pack. It’s usually water and drops gradually throughout the hike, but you can not dump a lot of it at one time.
The girls were eager to go at first.
Excited even.
Since we were walking the forest preserve trail, we saw a few deer here and there.
And yes, the girls were interested. I’m not sure if they wanted to chase them, or if Vasey realized that deer=venison which is her main protein source…
Somewhere around mile 7, Vasey told us she was tired.
But we all made it to the 9 mile mark in 3 hours and a few stops.
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