What Did I Just Say?!

It's Silly Sunday, and Sandee at Comedy Plus has challenged us all to share something funny. Lucky (?) for you, I like a good pun . . . and quite a few bad ones too! It's not quite dog related but this is one of my favorite jokes:

Mickey Mouse goes to a divorce lawyer. The attorney says "Mr. Mouse, you can't divorce your wife just because she's a little crazy."

Mickey says, "I didn't say she was crazy I said she was fucking Goofy."

If you're done groaning from the last joke, here's one of my favorite cartoons (Surprise, it is dog related):

Want more silliness? Click around below and see what others are sharing today. Do you have something silly to share? Link up! As always, thanks Sandee for putting this together every week. Later, -- K

After Dinner Walk

It's HOT in Florida. We have pushed our walks to the evenings when it's not quite as oppressive. Last week we joined RK and Jedi's mom, Zasha, at a new park. Pretty nice, hunh?

I'll tell you all about the park later because today is Wordless Wednesday! Click around below and see what others are sharing. Later, -- K

Sunday Funnies

We had the newspaper delivered when I was a kid. I loved looking at the Funny Pages. One of my all-time favorites was The Far Side. Gary Larson has a strange sense of humor, especially when it came to animals. Anybody remember these?

30+ years and they still crack me up. Good thing it's Silly Sunday! Want more silliness? Click around below and see what others are sharing today. Thanks to Sandee at Comedy Plus for putting this together for everybody. Later, -- K

P.S. Did you know you can follow The Far Side on Facebook? You can! Click here.

Howell Park

It's June. Heat and humidity have descended upon Florida in full force. It's oppressive and we are pretty much homebound during the day. Ugh. This makes for bored and restless dogs. When possible, we try to get out in the evenings for a walk. Unfortunately, I'm usually exhausted after work so even if a walk happens it's a bit lackluster for poor Jedi. I'm trying to keep him occupied with nosework and puzzle toys. We're also doing some obedience training indoors. We don't need much space to work on the "front" and "heel" positions.

Yesterday Jedi and I had our weekly nosework class. Afterwards I needed to go into work to feed the animals in the kennel. Until we hire another ACO, I'm pulling double duty. (Between you and me, I could use the overtime.) I decided to take Jedi with me. He got to bark at meet some of my coworkers at City Yard. A couple pieces of chicken leftover from class convinced him that the guys were OK. Then we grabbed a couple burgers at McDonalds and stopped by one of my favorite places at the beach.

Howell Park is a small park with multiple coquina paths winding throughout. There's a stream full of tiny fish and a big pond full of turtles. I've seen birds, squirrels, raccoons and armadillos scamper across the trails. Last summer we had reports of otters swimming in the stream. And if you're in the park at dusk you can hear the owls hooting to each other. It's such a peaceful place right in the middle of the city. A brisk, walk through the park can improve my mood in 15 minutes.

Despite the beauty and shade of a thousand trees, it was unbearably hot yesterday. I ended up taking a few pictures and cutting our walk short. Sorry Jedi.

If you happen to be out this way, make sure to stop by Howell Park. It's a great place to picnic and take a few photos. Make sure to save some crumbs for the turtles. -- K

P.S. As an ACO I feel it necessary to point out that no leash laws were broken to get these shots. Jedi is securely tethered to a fixed object in both pictures -- I'm just getting better at positioning the camera to crop out the leash.

Pin-Up Pup

For the past few years Black Horse Creations has put together a German Shepherd calendar. Crazy GSD owners like me submit pictures to the FB page and people vote on who they'd like to see in the calendar. Last year my friend twisted my arm and I submitted this photo that my aunt took in Alpharetta last year:

We didn't get in. I couldn't believe it! I think the fact that I entered the contest late didn't help. (BTW, when Hubby calculated how much I would have spent on calendars for all my friends and family he wasn't nearly as upset as I was.) This year Black Horse Creations is doing two calendars -- one just for puppy pictures and one for grown GSDs, so I sent in two pictures. The rules say only one submission per group. It was tough, but here are my picks.

This one for the puppy calendar:

Click here to vote for baby Jedi

And this one for adult calendar:

Click here to vote for Big Boy Jedi

I'm hoping we get in one of the calendars this year. (Hubby not so much.) If you've got a GSD picture you'd like to submit, click here to join the FB Group. Honestly, join the group if you want to just look at great GSD photos. It'll make you smile!

And speaking of smiling, it's Wordless Wednesday! Click around and see what others are sharing. It always brightens my day. -- K

It's a Dog, Not a Toaster

As I mentioned earlier, Jedi and I are going for our Beginner Novice title. I'm not exactly sure when, but it's "on the list." Why Beginner Novice? Because it was designed for people just like me -- super green and scared as hell. Beginner Novice is a cross between regular obedience and rally, and a good jumping off point for either route. There are rally signs and it's not as rigid (read "intimidating") as regular obedience. It actually looks doable. Please note: I DID NOT say easy. Bless his heart, Jedi doesn't do "easy."

So, once I made up my mind I needed a plan. I went to my obedience club and asked when the next beginner rally and/or beginner foundations class was being offered. I couldn't get a straight answer -- maybe June, possibly during the day, not sure which day but definitely not on Fridays . . . Grrr.

My next stop was Amazon. There's not a whole lot of material available on competitive obedience. (Seriously, where are people learning this stuff?!) I couldn't find any DVD tutorials, but did find a couple books that sounded interesting. The first was It's a Dog Not a Toaster by Diana Kerew-Shaw. The book is a fun, quick read but doesn't have the nuts and bolts that I was looking for. Instead, it's a hodgepodge of the history of competitive obedience,  personal stories, tips and fun photos.

Meanwhile, I signed up for an online Rally Skillbuilding class with the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Class starts tomorrow. I'm super excited! I'll let you know how it goes. TTFN, -- K

UKC Nosework News

The UKC may be slow, but they send you certificates for everything. (This is very encouraging for insecure handlers like me!) These came in the mail today:

They certify that Jedi passed both the birch and anise tests last month and can now compete in novice and advanced UKC nosework trials. YEA!

Rumor has it there will be trials right here in Florida in October. I'm trying to convince a group of friends to join me, turning the trials into a couple of fun-filled dog, women and wine weekends. Not to brag, but you'd be a fool to turn down such an invitation!

Unfortunately, the UKC doesn't hand out information as freely as they do certificates. I'll have to ferret out details before the girls will say yes. So, this post is for them as much as it is for my blogging buddies. (BTW, Blogging Buddies are always welcome to crash the party!)

The upcoming UKC Nosework trials are Individual Element Classes, similar to the NACSW Specialty trials. (This is different from the NW1 title that my friends got earlier this month.)

To title, a dog must get two legs (qualifying scores) in each of the four elements -- interior, exterior, container vehicle -- for a particular scent. The October trials are set up so we can get Vehicles and Exteriors one weekend (Ocala), Containers and Interiors the following weekend (St. Petersburg). The clubs are running morning and afternoon trials of the same element each day. If we pass both we're good to go. If we only get one leg, it’ll carry over to another trial.

My friend had these car stickers made

for the entire nosework group!

UKC will accept the NACSW ORT for a particular odor. Good thing because most of my friends have ORTs. Those of us that don't can take Pre-Trials before the morning trials each day. However, I don’t think a dog can trial on that odor until the afternoon (we'll have to double check this). All five odors will be available for pre-trial testing at Ocala. We should test on everything while we have the chance. (NACSW doesn't offer vetiver and myrrh, so we should definitely knock those out!)

Like NACSW, birch is the first level. Passing these will earn us an NN (novice nosework) title. My trainer said the area of the interior search for birch would be about the size of the bathroom at her facility. We train in areas larger than that!

One tricky thing: UKC requires you to enter under A or B trial (like obedience). A is for the true novice (no titles anywhere). However, you can’t enter multiple A trials in the same event, regardless. Trainer says there’s no real difference between A and B, so to play it safe we should enter all B trials.

Also, there's a limit to how many people can enter a trial. Unlike NACSW which picks participants by lottery, UKC is first come, first served. Therefore, the sooner we enter, the better! I've emailed the St. Petersburg club asking for a premium. I will share when I get something. Trainer says she’ll get a premium for the Ocala shows to me as soon as possible too.

So, who's with me? I'm calling out Blondie, Red and Pittsburgh. And if RK can get her pup up to speed, we'll have a wine glass for her too. Anybody else? -- K