10 posts tagged “dog”

If you could be an expert in any one field, which one would you choose?

I chose my field long ago, and I've been studying it comprehensively since then. Dog behaviour ftw. I'm still learning all the time, and I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I know a hell of a lot more than most people. This will be my vocation until the day I die. I love my life.

Well ... reunion.
I lamented the fact that no-one had brought playing cards. A lot. I now keep some in my purse.
Marie gave me a packet of sugar that she wasn't going to put in her irish coffee (or whatever it was), and I ate it and enjoyed it immensely. She went and got 3 more packets, to my delight; but AJ STOLE THEM! Incensed, I tried to yoink them back, and failed. We ended up in a tug of war which the packets lost, and sugar sprayed all over the carpet. It was a tragedy, but an amusing one, particularly as I wasn't the one who had to vaccuum up. I took the two mangled, depleted packets and downed the contents, and AJ secreted the third (unbroken) packet somewhere about her person. And WOULDN'T GIVE IT BACK! "Don't have it." She said, liar that she is. (When I asked for it as we were leaving, she realised that she really didn't have it anymore. Maybe it went to the same place as left socks do?)
 Marie spoke to Mr Tatnall, and I spoke to Mr Ross. He was reluctant to distract me from Josh. I think he thought we were a couple, or possibly just that we hadn't seen each other in forever. I guess it was the excessive glumphing.
We spent a while hovering around the finger food. There were untrustworthy-tasting spring roll-looking things, which I ate tons of simply because they looked like spring rolls and therefore should have been nice, as well as the other regular party whatsamits and very little vegetarian.Marie came in crowing that she had been challenged to a drinking competition and lost, and I won my bet. The rest of the night was all downhill. I pilfered Jess's scarf for a laugh, and hid it in Marie's purse. Then some dufus came along and spilt beer allllllll over it. *Shudders* Sorry Jess ... We tried to wash it in the sink. I don't think it worked very well. Marie started swearing loudly at everyone, repeatedly threatening to physically assault Will. After the millionth time, I said "Oh no, she's ghosting!" At one point she ran after him, screeching, and opened a door into her face. Jess and I tried to make sure she drank water and didn't fall over or yell anything that would get her killed, but those last two turned out to comprise an almost superhuman task. Will admitted to Jess that he wanted to make out with her, but wouldn't because it was his fault she was so drunk. That was something at least.
Everyone left fairly early.
Mm.

On Friday Marie had her party. I skipped work so I'd be able to finish my assignment and turn up at 3 at Jells Park. I packed the dogs in the car and went to pick up Gity. The front door was open but the flyscreen locked. I knocked, but no-one answered. I  tried again. And again. I called "Is anyone home?!" and got no reply. Worried, I turned to leave; but just then I heard a boy say something quietly inside, and a minute later Gity came to the door. We were a little late, but so were most people, so that was okay. Hugs were distributed. We had some nibbles and purloined the playground for a while. Jess amused herself by teasing Mystic with some dog food she found in her pocket. I managed to incite everyone but AJ and Jess to come on a walk with me, and we set off across the park. Andrew demanded to hold the leash of a dog, whereupon he leapt around like a maniac and fell over. I removed the leash and handed Merry to JR instead. We didn't get very far before it started to rain, and then to hail. I quickly realised that the hailstones were freaking massive, and JR and I picked up the dogs and everyone ran back. Well, I think Gity stayed behind on the swing. But most people. As the hail slowed down, the inevitable hail fight started; it was a battle of epic proportions and duration, inciting in the participants the most devious and conniving tricks to get those long-lasting stones down the back of people's necks. In short, it was brilliant fun. Luckily AJ, Jess and Josh had managed to rescue all our stuff and hide it in a little troll tunnel under the playground. As the hail slowly melted, our fight simmered down and we ended up (as always) surrounding the swings and chatting amiably. When the thunder started I suggested we bring the cars closer and (after a while staring gob-smacked at the sky like the peasants that we are) we did so. Andrew was convinced that it was going to be a brilliant storm, so we waited a while just in case the heavens decided to open so we could have the pleasure of getting throughly soaked and cold. Summer thunderstorms are absolutely brilliant. Sadly, this turned out not to be one. We had started playing forty forty when I had to leave to take Gity and the dogs home.
No-one answered the door at my house, so I went around the side and put the dogs through the catflap. I found mum and viv entrenched in some word game in the bottom room. "Hi," I said. No answer. "I'll be off then ..." Non-commital grunt. Nice to feel important :P
I went to Jess's house, only to discover that Jess and Josh were the only ones there - The others had had to go back to get a bag. Through a series of tense phonecalls, a drama unfolded - Marie's mum wanted her home. Nay, DEMANDED her home, and piffle to the fact that her friends were throwing her a party too. So AJ and Andrew turned up a while later, and Marie did not, and we had the second half of her party without her. She said we should eat her cake, so we did, and we sang and wished her a very merry un-birthday party as we did so. It was nice cake. We played clebrity heads, had chips and Andrew's bean salad for dinner, and watched "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" because one of my characters had been Sean Connery. It was good. I hadn't seen that movie in ages.
 The next day I went to see The Pirates of Penzance with Marie. Her mother was in hospital with high blood pressure [ :(  ], so my mum came with us instead. It was excellent. I freakin love that musical. Gilbert and Sullivan, u rok guyz. It would have been better if the actors had been given microphones, but oh well.
"So you said often, *frequently*."
"No I didn't, only once."
Hehe
Yeah
Played DnD last Saturday. There was a lot of trying to get into insanely hard to get into place which we knew was full of plague and corpses and violent giant mutant ware-rats and what have you. For no apparent reason. We got in, threw up, fought for our lives, rescused the last remaining inhabitants and then KEPT GOING against insane odds just for the vage mention of some mystical secret fridges or something. Which no-one would tell us how to find. And we fought for our lives, ended up trapped with some crazy masochistic bitch who killed a little girl and made Joanne go nuts, then killed our awesome but suicidal androgynous muscle-person (stand in for Betty) before leaping to her death. And then Joanne leapt after, using featherfall, and discovered that yes, the little girl WAS in fact dead and severely mangled. And now she's stuck. Sigh. I hinted that she should go cannibal and not starve, and then I went home.
The next day was the Royal Melbourne Show. The Excellent Snooker course was quite nasty. Merry found food on the ground as we walked into the ring - little kids were throwing stuff everywhere. Crap. After she'd choked on that for a while, I set her up and off we went ... Merry with her nose glued to the ground, looking for more food. but she still managed to finish the openeing sequence, right up until the last jump, which she knocked the bar off, because her nose was on the ground. Sigh. I started the closing sequence and she was with me until the end of the A-frame, whereupon she vanished in a blur as she did her superfast zoomies around the course. The crowd was loving it. Eventually she came back, and I tried to get her to go into the tunnel, but she wasn't having it. So, seeing as we'd already failed, I picked her up and shot her into the tunnel (like you do in training when you're building speed). She shot through, came out the other end and did more zoomies. Hoorah. She went and visited a kid by the fence and I picked her up and tried to get her to weave ... and off she shot again. I caught her the third time, smiled indulgently to the amused crowd, thanked the judge, and left. Ah well. There was a big break before my next run, so mum went and explored the show, and then sent me off to buy whatever I wanted from the animal pavilion next door. I got a shmackos showbag and some pig's ears, and admired the tolerand cats are ridiculous looking rabbits. Our second run of the day was Strategic Pairs. We weren't holding out much hope, since B'ellanna (Merry's partner) was having an even better day than she was. I was the one to start. The judge said "Go," I said "REaaaady? GO!!!" and dashed forwards ... leaving Merry firmly planted and blinking placidly at the crowd. I went back and, using my finest encouragement skills, finally got her to move. Off we went, jump, jump, tunnel, where's the dog gone? She'd stayed in the tunnel. I bent down to look in the tunnel and called her, and out she blazed ... from the wrong end. The crowd were pissing themselves laughing. I sent her through the tunnel again and over the next jump, then hel her collar while B'Ellanna started ... or didn't, as the case may be. She decided that she'd rather give the A-frame a miss, thanks all the same. On the 3rd attempt she finally went up, and the crowd cheered. With an excessive amount of cajoling, she managed the next 5 jumps, and it was Merry's turn again. Jump, weave ... or not. she went past them. The judge called a refusal, even though it's games and there technically are no refusals. Gr. B'Ellana went into the weaves, was gaing nicely ... and popped out at the second last pole. The crowd groaned sympatehetically. Merry had her turn again and did them perfectly, as she normally does, and the crowd cheered again. I realised too late that I was on the wrong side, and did a very sloppy cross-over, but we still managed to get through the jumps. B'Ellana was moving in slow motion, but still managed hers. I sent Merry through the tunnel, over the jump, into the chute (fingers crossed, please don't get tangled up ...) and she came out the right end! Just in time I remembered the last jump I had to do, and we raced off to finish that one. And over to B'Ellana ... who would rather give the dog walk a miss, thanks all the same. She got up on the FIFTH try, and over the very last jump. We finished in an incredible 3 minutes - 2 minutes over the time limit - only to discover that I had disqualified us right at the beginning when I'd crossed back over the start line to get Merry to go. Ha! Good thing it wasn't a good run then, hey what. Merry got her chicken and then went in her crate to sleep while mum took me to see the handicrafts, and then we went home. All in all, an amusing day.

Toodle pip.

Well, not holidays so much. But I haven't updated in ages, so YAY list

• Mum got me work experience with the detector dog program - they breed labradors to sniff out drugs at the airport. It was interesting at first, just seeing how they train their dogs (throw something and hope they fetch it). But after the hundredth hour of scooping diarrhoea, walking halfway across the muddy compound and blending it in the insinkerator, I was REALLY glad it was over.
• She also got me work experience with a veterinary behaviourist, Dr Debbie. She's nice. She does some training in a hall near our house, getting reactive dogs used to other dogs. There are a couple of nice dogs who've had bad experiences, and a couple who are just completely barking mad. Literally. She also does house calls, can she's let me come to a couple so far. It's really helpful.
• A lady who came to help Debbie asked if I would be an instructor at their dog school, so I'm now doing their short instructor's course.
  
• The RSPCA has been reaaaaally muddy. Luckily I have, by pure skill, avoided falling on my arse in it or (permanently) loosing any of my shoes in the depths of it .... although I did slip and fall on the electric fence. Youch ... I swear the cow was laughing at me.
• I went to RMIT for a day with Josh. He made me an awesome bracelet. I watched Imaginary Heroes on his laptop while he was supposedly listening to his lecturer. We went out to eat and I finished watching the movie in the library while he and his friends did "work". Then I went to a bookshop and found the next Artemis Fowl book. Yay ^_^
• We've done some DnD. It's awesome, particularly the bits where the characters go completely nuts and kill each other and Andrew is left tearing his hair out and on the verge of a breakdown. I love Order of the Stick and DM of the Rings very much indeed.
• Went to see Dark Knight. Marie and Jess and I bought tickets early then went for dinner, and were joined by AJ (after initially walking past each other once or twice) and Aparna and we went in. About 10 minutes into the movie, Scott turned up and I had to tell him we hadn't bought him a ticket because we didn't know he was coming. One major guilt trip later, he somehow managed to procure a ticket for the seat next to us (in an otherwise comletely booked out theatre.) I felt better after that. The movie was really loud and violent, but good.
  
• Went to Josh's place and we walked to AJ's. It started to rain so we ran and I lost a couple of Uno Stacko pieces. We found one but couldn't find the other, so we left it. We played scrabble and stacko and Josh taught us how to play eucha (I think that's how it's spelt) with the olympics as background noise, and then we watched Flight of the Concords until 1:30. It was nice. I didn't find the stacko piece on the way back, but we did get rained on again.
• The next day I went to Jess's early and looked for it again. I found it! ... On the road, completely squished.  XD Andrew bought  a massive number of Stargate DVDs, and we watched a few episodes and then some Doctor Who for the benefit of AJ and Marie. People insisted on torturing me by flinging a revoltingly intestine-like pink thing at me at random intervals. *Is scarred for life*
• Merry got lots of passes in agility. She's teh awesome  =D
• Have been to libraries and book stores etc quite a lot. Books are nice.
  
• I have no idea if that's all. I cannot remember when I last updated on stuff wot I 'ave done, and I have probably left stuff out. Never mind. Onwards and forwards!
  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GEbkjgii6E

Merry's first dance. It was taken the same day as Mystic's, and Mystic was in the car - you can see that every time she woofs Merry looks around to find her. Oops :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUX1cTT_2hI

Mystic's first dance. Yahoo! She's my lil spunk :)

(I'm glad she's able to compensate for my less-than perfect handling :P )

I hate uploading things onto youtube. AAAA

I miss Meggs. The house still seems somehow empty without him.

Mum doesn't want to get another cat, because what would happen to him once me and Viv move out?

She said, maybe we can get a dog. For her, so she won't be alone when I move overseas and take my little munchkins with me.

That would be nice, I think.

I don't think I hear him purring when I walk down the hallway at night anymore.
I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.
The dogs are finally eating well and not being depressed. But every time I reach into the cupboard to get their dinner, I find cans of cat food that are never going to be eaten ...

Have had a RA - THUR good weekend. Have done NO WORK even though FINAL EXAMS start in only SIX WEEKS and we haven't even STARTED unit 4 in biology.
Oh well. I am happy, and that is becoming an increasingly rare occurence these days, so it was worth it.
On Saturday Viv and I tagged along on mum's feild trip to Werribee Open Range Zoo. First we made a stop at Readings, and mum told me I could buy books. I asked one of the staff where Arundhati Roy's non-fiction stuff was, and she said in the political section. Mum was like "... er, Political, Steph?" and I raised my eyebrow at her and said "Yeah, her writing *is* political." and I could see mum's mind ticking over <aw crud, our constant cynical attitude towards modern politics has somehow had some kind of effect on my child ... does this mean she's actually *serious* about her opinions? Now she's going to go all obsessive ... Aw crud.> So I bought "The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire", which is a book of speeches, and "The Chequebook & The Cruise Missile", which is interviews with Arundhati Roy.
The bus driver was really nice. Only about half of the students turned up - there were meant to be forty, and 23 were actually there. On the bus I managed to get mum addicted to Arundhati too. I'm good at getting people addicted to things.

IT'S RAINING! YAY!

And at the zoo we went on a bus and the tourguide wasn't particularly engaging or competent, but the animals were prddy. We saw giraffes and scimitar horned oryx and hippos and emus and rhinos and zebras and cape barren geese and various kinds of antelope. And then we walked around and saw the meercats and the lions and sculls and things. And then we got food, except it took a reaaaaally long time and we were getting late so everybody ate on the bus and the people with chips had to put them in bags so that they didn't stink the bus up.
Next stop was an Alpaca farm. Alpacas are awesome because they're like llamas, only cuter. And there were very very cute ones when we went, little young ones with booffy heads and big eyes. Awww! We gave them injections and trimmed their toenails and learned about alpaca farming. One of them really didn't want to have the hair over its eyes trimmed, and it spat up its stomach contents and it stank. And then we just went in and patted them. The little ones were covered in burrs because there's been a drought there for five years so they've had to buy in lots of feed which has burr seeds in and the little ones roll in it. But they're still adorable. Pretty much everyone aproached them head-on, standing straight up, and reached over the top of them then patted down onto their heads. HOW SCARY CAN YOU BE?! They flinched away and got freaked out. So I went in and knelt down and gently stroked down the sides of their necks to calm them down. And then we had biscuits and Viv found that the people had German Shepherds so I went and said hello to them. Sooky babes! Then the alpacas saw the bus driver and gave the alarm call, which sounded like birds. (If I really was christopher I would find a sound clip and stick it in, but I am not so very pedantic.) I felt ill and had to go sit down for a while, but apart from that it was cool.
And some of the students said that it was the best fun they've had since coming to uni.
And I went, oh shit.
I guess because I have been blessed with that most rare and wonderful of gifts - good parents - a trip like that is a somewhat more everyday occurence than it would be to most. And I also know that learning SHOULD be fun, because we learn things so much better that way. When you DO things, you learn how to USE information. But never mind.
Maybe one day I will make the system change, with my wonderful research papers revealing things which any animal trainer worth their salt is fully cognicent about.

A rat trap just went off.
I don't think it caught a rat though.
Um.

Anyway, Jess and Gity and AJ and Marie and (a tad late) Josh came over today. (You know you did, but I am writing for my imaginary audience here, okay?) Aparna didn't come because she was STUDYING. Her brain is going to melt with the stress of constant study, I just know it. And Bharat didn't come either, but he had a reason and so is forgiven. And we watched the end of the Umbilical Brothers, and then we played monopoly while Doctor Who was on in the background. Monopoly takes a Very Long Time to play. Jess and Gity had to leave before we had finished. Josh wouldn't sell me Liverpool St Station or that green property that I have now forgotten the name of. But then he went bankrupt and sold me all his stuff for $20. And then I landed on  Park Lane and I really wished I hadn't sold Mayfair to AJ, and I mortgaged all my properties and soon after went bankrupt, and AJ won. And then we played Uno, and I won. Then I got Mystic to play, but they wouldn't let her win because she couldn't say Uno. I thought that was unfair descrimination, but they wouldn't back down. Meanies. And Marie had to go home, but AJ and Josh and I played Upwords, and one of AJ's words (she won, btw) was Smut, so I showed them Tom Lehrer's Smut song. And then everyone went home. We had a LOT of chips today.
Mmm, junk food ...

Show us your best pet photo. 
Submitted by 8gurl. 

Mystic

OK, I don't think I'm ever going to do that part 2. So in summary:
We went to our first NADAC agility trial on the 6th of May - and we took Mystic. And we ENTERED Mystic. Her first agility run ever!!!
Anyway, Merry had 2 jumpers runs and one regular agility, Mystic had one agility run. On the first jumpers run Merry did everything fine, clear run, but came in way overtime.
Then it was Mystic. She got a little nervous by the start line. It was time to go - and she ran with me - and then the dreaded tunnel. She froze. Oh great, I thought. I knew this was going to happen. What now? So I told her to sit ... gave up on that idea, told her to run, and she went through the tunnel. Woot! But then she went past a jump, and when I called her she back-jumped. No pass, oh well. She froze at the next tunnel too and I let it slide, kept running and she was getting some nice speed towards the end. Good Dog!
On the second jumpers Merry got it all right, was going nicely - and then missed the last jump. Ah well. And on the regular - she was going well until the distance. Merry and distance don't mix. So I crossed the distane line, took her through the tunnel, up the A-frame, and then she went crazy psycho and did rabbit zoomies, round and round and round. It was hilarious. People on the sidelines were cracking up. I e ventually got her back and finished the course properly - 40 seconds overtime. Hooray!
And now I'm missing spicks and specks, so thunderstorm and pap club'll have to wait. Ta ta for now.