Kickin' Ash in Kelso

Sunday we headed down to Kelso, Washington for Kickin' Ash in Kelso, a wonderfully fun day put on the Jack Russell Club. They had a variety of events including go to ground, terrier races, lure coursing, and brush hunt!

It turned out that will all the excitement Cody wasn't interested in the events, but he did have a wonderful time sniffing, and meeting people and other dogs!

Cairn pups and a very excited momma.

Cody meets Roo, a 5 month old terrier mix.

Cody comes in for a closer look.

Cody growls nervously, and Roo does perfect appeasement signals.

Sappho, Maya, and Roo paid lots of attention to the lure coursing and other events though!

Lets go!!

Victorious.

Roo is a rescue girl from a local shelter.

And she's in training to be a flyball height dog!

Is that....lure coursing?

It is!

Let me go play!!

That was fun. Lets go again!

We finished off the day with terrier racing!

Spring Evening

We had a beautiful Spring evening to relax in the yard, and everyone came out to enjoy it!

Cody locates a ball to be his special toy.

Sappho heads for the slopes.

Cody considers joining foster sister.

Sappho gets sidelined by an itch.

And Cody gets sidelined by a roll!

And of course, no evening is complete without lots of ball chewing and chasing!

Foster Dad Love

We spent the day trying to repair the lawn, part of which involved de-thatching the grass. Cody spent some of that time hanging out around foster Dad, supervising. But what Cody really wanted was some foster Dad love!

Fence Repair Celebration

The aftermath!

Two months ago a person driving by our home had a seizure, passed out, and plowed into our fence. While he ended up ok, I couldn't say the same of our fence!

Only some of the set up to secure the yard!

This was a huge breach in our fence security, and we had to quickly set up a way to make the yard safe for the dogs. We needed to prevent them getting out through the hole, so we used a variety of supplies we already had and new supplies to fence it off.

Another part of the arsenal!

The result of this improvised fencing worked to keep the dogs out of the slopes and down in the lower portion, providing two barriers - one against getting on the slopes and one blocking the hole in the fence if they did get up the slopes.

Two months of restricted hard access was frustrating to everyone. So when the insurance check came, the fence company was called, and the fence fixed, it was time to celebrate!

Cody immediately checked out upslope. 

 But no one was happier about this than Kezi, who finally got to go outside again!

Sprinkler

We discovered another side of Cody today! Derek set up the sprinklers, and as it started making its distinctive noise, Cody started whining and pacing back and forth between me and the backdoor. Cody knows that if he paces to the backdoor and back to me, I'll let him out - so I again obliged!

I expected him to run out and examine it, then turn and come back in as the water drops rained down. Much to my surprise, the opposite happened - he started chasing and pouncing at the water!

Saturday Yardwork

Saturday was spent repairing our yard after a hard season. Derek and I spent most of the morning de-thatching the lower back yard, and this quiet, calm work meant the dogs and the cat got to join us!

Cody locates Ball quickly.

Cody loves to chew on his ball.

Gotta work both sides evenly!

Sappho lounges for a while.

Before inevitably giving in to the heat.

Even Maya is starting to get sleepy eyes!

TTouch Rewards

An expression I see too often.

During the TTouch seminar, we got to see real time benefits of TTouch. We had a smooth collie who was whining, and after an elastic was laid over her muzzle and tied behind her head, she relaxed into silence. Dandy started out a little concerned with everyone watching him and didn't want to engage with Lori. Using gentle TTouch methods she drew him back into her and he was rewarded with soothing TTouches.

Cody experienced benefits of his own, and they came during the groundwork session. The two pictures above are faces I often see on Cody. The amount of time I see them has been steadily decreasing and he's becoming a happier and happier boy, but our end goal is to set him up so that he rarely has cause for those expressions.

During the groundwork I struggled to slow myself down and to move with Cody. Lori made sure we walked side by side instead of one of us being ahead of the other. We went through the course several times and I started to feel him settle and relax. One obstacle in particular seemed to help him connect and become more balanced

The labyrinth.

Something about walking through, pausing, continuing, pausing again, and finally moving out had a profound effect on him. I started to see a change in his expression.

His face starts to relax.

During our last run through we finished with the labyrinth again. I turned after we were done to look at him, and was greeted with a happy, relaxed, joyful Cody.

It was a very emotional moment, seeing this guy who had been through so much be so relaxed and happy. It brought home for me the value of TTouch and the marvels it can work in dogs. It works on dogs without behavioral issues as well as special needs dogs. It has benefit for every dog who is lucky enough to experience TTouch, and because of how powerful it is we will be continuing Cody's TTouch work both at home and through seeing Lori for further training.

I want to see this face all the time!