Advanced Gamblers

 

Liam and I went to an agility trial yesterday. I always say any trial where we have a Q is a good trial. They are especially good when Liam gets a Q (qualifying score). That boy tries so hard and I do think he enjoys agility.  Yesterday's trial was at a location where I know he does not like the teeter at all! Our first run was a Gamblers where you get to plan your own opening run and the Main Gamble was the A-frame and two jumps so I decided we would not even try to do the teeter or the dog walk.  The dog walk has the same angle as the teeter so dogs often think it might be the teeter. 

I planned our opening going up the right hand side of the ring. We did the 4 point jump, the tunnel to the left, back again through the tunnel to the 4 point jump. I had intended to push Liam to the backside of the jump so he would be jumping towards the A-frame but he was too fast for me and took it on a slice which worked out just fine. After the A-frame, it was off to try the back mini gamble (labelled a,b,c). Liam did the tunnel, came in towards me and when I sent him back out he took the jump on the side labelled B, then he back jumped the side labelled b. You can only do an obstacle twice for points in the opening so now we couldn't get the mini gamble. In any case, I had him do the tunnel under the dog walk twice and then the buzzer for the end of the opening time went. I got him back and over the A-frame, I really didn't expect him to stay out to the first jump but he did and he also stayed out for the second jump which really surprised me. I wasn't sure we had made time as he stuttered stepped to both jumps and I wasn't even sure if I'd had stepped over the gamble line or not. The Gamble line ended at the dog walk, sometimes judges will tell you that the line goes to infinity but for this course the judge said the line ended at the dog walk so you had to treat it like a handler's box. With a handler's box, you can't cross any of the lines until the dog is past the point of faulting so for a jump, when their 4 feet are past the jump bar. I was so excited that he did the gamble that I thought I might have crossed the line while he was still jumping.

Luckily, I hadn't. Liam got a qualifying score with 25 points in the opening; he needs 16 as a Veteran dog. And he was well under the Gamble time, in fact even was he still in Specials, it still would have been a Q

Our next two runs were Standard agility runs. In the first run, the dog walk was the second obstacle. Liam didn't want to do it at all thinking it might be the teeter. The dogs can wear a flat collar now so I just put my finger in the collar and talked him over it. Our time ended before we got to the teeter so we didn't get to try that. In the second run, the teeter was the 6th obstacle. Liam again did not want to do it, so again I put my finger in his collar and coaxed him up and over. We got a round of applause when he finally did the teeter. For both Standards, the parts of the runs he did do, he did very well and he only had one jump down in all three runs. 

I'm not exactly sure how to work with him about this teeter, he does other teeters pretty well. I am going to try and weight mine so it drops faster and put a piece of plywood under the end so it bangs a bit on the drop.

But all in all, it was a good trial. We didn't have to get up too early, we were home before dinner time, the weather was good and Liam got a qualifying score. One more Advanced Gambler Q and he'll be in Masters Gamblers. 

Got to have Heart!

 

At Teddy's last visit to the vet before Christmas, our vet noted that he had a heart murmur and said there were tests that could be done to see if medication would help.  Well, since that visit Teddy's been coughing a lot when he plays with Liam, when he tries to roll over on his back and lately even just getting up after laying down for awhile. I made a visit for Teddy this past week and had those tests done. Sure enough, Teddy has an enlarged heart that the vet thinks is due to a leaky heart valve.

So Teddy has started on heart medication and we have an appointment to see a veterinary cardiologist for an echocardiogram to see what is really going on. I'm only going forward with the specialist consult as I have insurance on Teddy and the deductible was covered with the bloodwork and x-rays with our regular vet. I'll have to pay for appointment fee with the specialist but 90% of the echocardiogram will be covered.

I don't want to do the math to see whether or not I'm ahead of the insurance game. I never had insurance with my first few dogs. But then when Ceilidh got cancer and shortly afterwards Tucker had pancreatitis and also possibly Cushings, there were times when the vet bills would take one whole pay cheque, and let me tell you I made decent money when I was working. So I put insurance on Beckett and Keltic but Beckett's passing was so sudden I never even put in a claim for him and with Keltic, even though we had a diagnosis, he too went so quickly so that even though I'd put in a claim the deductible hadn't been paid.

The deductible for the interdigital cysts that Teddy has, still hasn't been fully paid but the claim is open and once I've fully paid that deductible, that condition will be covered as well. I'm hoping that it's never necessary but if the toe had to be amputated, I wouldn't have to worry if I could afford the surgery.  I guess that's the good thing about insurance is that you can make those decisions without worrying about where the money is coming from.

For Teddy, the insurance is now covering 90% of the cardiac medication. If that's all we do going forward, it's nice that those meds will only cost me about $40 a month rather than over $200 a month. He's only been on the medication for a couple days and I notice he's a bit more active.

Teddy has heart and let's hope with medication it keeps right on beating.

Farewell to Fergus

For me, the end of the Christmas season is marked by the day I take the tree down. Now that I'm retired, I always leave it up until Epiphany. It might have come down earlier when I was working as it is a lot of work to take it down.

Now that I usually invite friends to help me decorate the tree, I enjoy taking the tree down and packing away the ornaments that hold so many memories since I'm not the one to put many of them on the tree.

This year's tree was named Fergus. Fergus is an ancient Gaelic name meaning Man of Strength. Fergus definitely was a hefty guy. I go to pick out my tree on my own and the main things I look for are a good top and thicker trunk. I try to see if it's trunk is straight too but that's sometimes hard when you're holding the tree yourself. One thing I don't know is how much they weigh until I get the tree home and lift it up to put it in the tree stand. Fergus was a bit heavy; I even had to put him down on the front deck to get him in the house.  Although he was heavy, Fergus was just the right height. I have learnt that the trees look much smaller on the lot than they do in the house. 

Fergus was decorated a few days later. I always think that gives the tree time to acclimatize to the warmer temperatures before loading the branches with ornaments.

Just lights.

All decorated

This year, it took me awhile to really get fond of Fergus. There was something about him that initially didn't really call to me. But every morning when I came downstairs on these dark winter mornings, said Good Morning Fergus, and turned on his lights, I warmed up to him. He grew more beautiful every day.

I left up up him up perhaps a little too long though as he really left his mark behind, so many needles. I'm sure I'll be finding them still at Easter. It's kind of sad to put the tree out on the porch and then to the curb. Fergus like many trees before him, tried to escape with a few of his pretty baubles but he was generous in giving them up.

Farewell Fergus, you were an excellent Christmas tree. I hope you enjoyed your time with Teddy, Liam and me.

Someone Recognized the Tune!

Well, one of my friends recognized the tune from my atrocious singing. It's a German folk song called Du, du liegst mir im Herzen, which translates to You, You are in my Heart.  She sent me links to two videos but I found another that is very close to how we learnt the song for Glee Club.

German Folk Song video

Where they sing Ja, Ja, together is where we would have had the repeated line. I think they are also singing 4 verses where we only had 3, although I think we did repeat the last verse.

Snowy fields in the winter

White sheep looking for food

Star and angel appearing to the poor shepherd so good

Star and angel to the poor shepherd so good.

Haste to Bethlehem stable

There in manger for bed

You will find the Christ Child

That's what the angel had said

Find the Christ Child that's what the angel had said

Bowing before such glory

on that beautiful morn

there the shepherds beheld him

thus was the Christ Child born

They beheld him, thus was the Christ Child born.

So now I know, after all these years what the song was. I was probably told way back then but forgot!.

Snowy Fields

Does Anyone Recognize the Melody?

When I was in Grade 9, so many years ago, I was in the Glee Club. That year, one of the local radio stations was recording school choirs singing Christmas carols. Our club had learned I song that I thought was called You, You, Tender and Wistful. Our director said that if anyone wanted to write some words to make it a Christmas song we could sing that for the radio. I tried to find the song on the internet but couldn't find it, I'm thinking now that it might be a classical piece that later had words put to the music.

Anyway, one of my fellow students wrote the following words:

Snowy fields in the winter

White sheep looking for food

Star and angel appearing to the poor shepherd so good

Star and angel to the poor shepherd so good.

Haste to Bethlehem stable

There in manger for bed

You will find the Christ Child

That's what the angel had said

Find the Christ Child that's what the angel had said

Bowing before such glory

on that beautiful morn

there the shepherds beheld him

thus was the Christ Child born

They beheld him, thus was the Christ Child born.

After all these years I still remember the words to the carol but not the words to the song I originally learned.

Since I couldn't find the original song or music, you'll just have to listen to me sing. My apologies. If you know the melody please let me know what it is.

Snowy Fields