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The Alexander Menagerie -- January 2007

Trip to Portland

Jay misses Rain. A lot. So do I, but Jay does especially. So I thought I'd do some Web research and see if a breeder caught my eye. One did -- Sweetbay, down in Oregon. They breed Newfs for performance, which means their dogs are healthy,structurally sound, and drivey. That sounded great, so since I needed to go to Portland for a business meeting, I arranged to visit Sweetbay.

The entire trip was wonderful. I got out early and made it to my meeting on time, despite the frost on the roads. My meeting was both productive and short -- gotta love that! After my meeting I hooked up with my friend Greta. She had no classes to teach yesterday, so we spent the whole afternoon together playing with her dogs and chatting. Then we grabbed a quick dinner and headed to Sweetbay.

I can't rave enough about Sweetbay, Judi Adler, and the Sweetbay dogs. On Tuesday nights, Judi holds an informal get-together for owners of her dogs to come and train in her training building. Last night they were working on Rally. Amazing! These weren't the big, slow Newfs you usually see. These were dogs with real drive. Their responses were snappy and precise, and their attitudes were out of this word.

I was especially impressed with Judi herself. She's clearly an excellent trainer. The heeling she demonstrated was as good as any I've ever seen. She was also an excellent observer and able to tell the difference between a handler error, a dog error, and a dog who wasn't quite sure what the right answer was. I could learn sooo much from her. I wish I had a group like that to train with!

I had gotten up at o' dark thirty to make the drive to Portland, so I didn't stay after the "class" to chat. Greta and I headed back to her place, and I settled to sleep with Bailey, the beautiful show-type Aussie she's fostering. (He's an awesome dog!)

This morning we got up and went out to breakfast, and I got on the road about 11:00. I stopped in Olympia on the way home and had lunch with Leslie, Blue's trainer. She's great, as always. Love her to death! While there, we dropped off her car at a friend's place, and I got to meet Henry, a man who has adopted nine special needs horses from Columbia Basin Equine Rescue, the place I adopted Princess and Rowan. Henry is an angel. He has pored tons of money into these horses, just so they can have a happy, healthy, pain-free retirement. Bless you, Henry!

Back on the road at 4:00, and finally home at 6:00. It was a terrific trip, but I'm very glad to be back with my own critters!

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A productive weekend

Our hay barn is a three-sided structure with an open front and walls that go only halfway to the roof. Don't ask me why -- I didn't build it. We have tarps hung around the sides and over the hay to try to keep it dry. A tree came down on the roof in a storm a while back, taking out half of it, making it even less weatherproof. We don't have the money to fix it right now, so Jay stapled up another tarp. I thought that was going to be a horrible solution, but it's taut and has a slant to it, and has turned out to be more weatherproof than the roof was. Or, it was more weatherproof, until the wind storm ripped that tarp down, and then Mother Nature dumped ten inches of snow in there. On the tarps. Fun trying to lift THAT to get to the hay.

We took the last bales of hay up to the barn on Thursday, and since we're having a freak bout of sunny weather, I devoted my weekend to getting the hay barn back in shape. I dragged the tarps out and spread them out in the sun to dry. I removed moldy hay and straw and disposed of it where no grazing animals could get it. The floor was originally dirt, with a layer of shavings, with a layer of pallets. After all the rain, it was a slick, gross, stinky mess of mold and mildew. So I dragged out the rotting pallets and raked away the moldy layer of shavings. Then Jay and I stapled up the roof tarp, put down new shavings, and laid out a floor of brand new, clean, dry pallets. My hay barn is pristine, and a pristine shipment of timothy is being delivered tomorrow.

I worked my ass off, and I'm very proud of the end result.

I caught up with my friend Kalisa this weekend too. Her daughter Kyra is a horse-training, horse-riding prodigy. Kyra tried to convince me that I should move my horses to the barn where they board so she can train them. The scary thing is, I'm considering it.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Guide horses

This doesn't have anything to do with my critters, obviously, but today CNN.com had a nice article about Ann Edie and her guide horse, Panda. Panda was clicker trained by Alexandra Kurland.

After seeing lots of video about Panda, reading about her training, and talking with both Ann and Alex, I'm completely sold on the idea of using miniature horses as guide animals. In fact, if I ever needed a guide animal, I'd choose a mini horse over a dog every time!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Introducing the beasties

I've loved animals since I emerged from the womb. If I could, I'd be constantly surrounded by animals of every type, shape, and size. My dear husband injects a little reality in my life though, and so I'm limited to the beasties I can at least pretend to afford to feed and house. At this moment, the Alexander Menagerie is comprised of two dogs and four horses.

	Pax is the love of my life, a five year old curly coated retriever. He's perfectly perfect in every way. I worked with him fairly consistently as a puppy, but then got distracted by other things. Just recently I started working with him again. I'd like to stick with it and do both conformation and obedience with him.
	Aslan is my two-year-old Great Pyrenees. He's the dog that keeps me humble! I'm really very fond of him, but he is a challenge. His temperament is iffy at best, and, well, let's just say I've worked with smarter animals. But he's a big bear and the best hugger of the bunch.
	Blue is my five-and-a-half year old, blue roan quarter horse. He's a clicker star, but not thanks to me. I sent him to Leslie Peeples for training, and the results were phenomenal. This is a horse who is terrific when he's worked regularly, but he gets cranky and standoffish if he's not.
	Guinevere is a former PMU mare. She's an eleven year old Percheron cross (and the cutest thing on the planet). She's not quite 15 hands tall, but she's built like a tank. She's an amazingly easy horse. She has very little training, but it doesn't matter. She's so easy going that she'll try whether she knows what you want or not.
	Princess is a nineteen year old rescue from the feedlot in Yakima. The feedlot thought she might be a quarter horse, but she's gaited. She has navicular in her right front foot. Her special shoes keep her comfortable, and she would really benefit from regular, light riding, but I and my husband are anything but light!!
	Rowan is another rescue from the feedlot. This beauty just turned two. We're guessing she's one-quarter Percheron and three-quarters thoroughbred. She was completely unhandled when I got her, but she blossomed with some clicker training. I've hardly touched her since last spring though.

Gone but never, ever forgotten:

	Rain was our first Newfie. He passed away in September of last year. Losing him was harder than I ever could have imagined. We still cry.
	Satch was my heart for eleven and a half years. I got him in 1990, right after I graduated from college. He and I did a lot of moving and traveling. There will never be anyone else like him.
	Quincy was a sweet mare who just didn't get along with the rest of our brood. Since she was of retirement age, we decided to retire her to a place where she can be spoiled silly for the rest of her days.

Friday, January 26, 2007