autumn

joined 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

ah, then maybe uncovering is so that i can pull them all out, hahaha.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (3 children)

i have photos somewhere on my phone, but we began clearing the back section of our yard for the eventual meadow installation in a year or so! we raked up all the leaves/sticks/junk and got about 1/3 of it covered in cardboard to kill everything off. i need to read back over my materials, but i think the idea is to uncover for a month every few months to let the weed seeds germinate, then cover it back up to kill them off.

actual seeding will happen in early october of next year, likely with a mix from prairie moon.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

another weekend, another fast CAT event! jean did her two runs perfectly (no trying to bite the releaser), which solidifies my thought that the people the weekend before were handling her too roughly. she got to wear her fancy new collar with the handle, which may have helped, too. echo actually ran a couple of times (1/2 distance the first time), but she didn't really know what was going on, haha. i figure i'll do a few more practice runs with her before i start entering her "for real."

echo also starts her first rally obedience class tonight! i'm really excited, even though its from 8-9pm (so laaaate).

i'm just about done with the border collie rescue website (pro-bono work), and i'll be sure to share that once it's live. lots of cute dog pictures there. :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

ooblets is one of my favorite in this genre. it's got a great soundtrack, the humor is spot-on, and it's got an anti-capitalist message.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Miss Shirley, my 10yo cat, is walking on a leash now!

i love that!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

scheduled when i plan to vote (early). need to do my research first!

good news: jean (chi mix) got a new personal best on sunday for her 100-yard dash (8.65 seconds / 23.65 mph)! we have another event this coming weekend at a different club, and we'll probably meet up with some social media dog friends. :)

bad news


i will never run at that club again. i saw multiple people harshly correcting their dogs (one person was hanging their dog by the collar), and when i handed jean off to the releaser, they pulled her leash so tight she was clearly in distress and trying to squirm her way out of it. i probably should have left then, but i was in mild shock, so i let them take her. she ended up trying to bite the releaser when they went to take off her collar, which she has never done. this is not her first rodeo being handled/released by strangers, so i'm reluctant to place the blame on her at all. for the second run, i took her collar off before i handed her over, and i guess she was fine? i didn't stick around to ask. in any case, i ordered her a tag-free collar she can run with next weekend since she had such a bad experience, and i don't want her to repeat it.


i'm pet sitting for a sweet border collie from the same rescue where i got echo, so that's been fun. speaking of echo, we've stalled a bit on our nose work course, so i need to get back into that once i'm back at home. been having too much fun with treibball.

 

a few clips from jean's treibball training session this afternoon. she was actively afraid of the ball a few days ago, so this is awesome progress!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

firewatch is a personal favorite.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

the individual therapist matters a lot. i know friends who have gone through many before landing on one that actually helped them. i know that's not ideal, but it is an option. it's also a slow process for lots of folks.

two friends of mine are actually on ketamine treatments to help with their mental health after trying everything else.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Therapy didn’t help

there are lots of different kinds of therapy, so i hope it doesn't completely discourage you from ever going again. bee heart emoji

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

saw the substance last week, and i'm still thinking about how great it was.

planted an oak tree.

took loki (aussie) and echo (border collie) to try a couple of new sports on sunday: treibball (pronounced try-ball) and barn hunt. loki liked pushing the big ball around a lot in the former, and echo has a great nose for barn hunt.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

oh yeah, no dogs in the front yard thank goodness!

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white oak! (i.postimg.cc)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

we had to cut down a maple in this spot last year, as it was in danger of collapsing on our house. i planted this three-foot-nothing white oak to take its place, and i'm excited to watch it grow! the soil is super rich and well-draining right here since we had the stump ground down and left all the mulch to decompose. basically black gold. bee heart eyes emoji

edit: seeing all those invasive privets in the background. bee sob emoji

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I think posting about your plan would be a good starting point for some conversations and might encourage some other folks to emulate you

once i actually start doing the work, i definitely will!

Did they talk to you about solarizing next spring using tarps?

they did, but this area of the yard is pretty shady, so the guy leading the workshop specifically recommended using cardboard and mulch for maximum annihilation.

 

i started this online scent work course about a week ago, and it has been a lot of fun! i'm used to more showy dog sports (agility, rally obedience, dock diving, etc), so finding something chill has been really eye-opening. you can see right around the 1:45 mark where she sniffs the other colander, realizes there's no scent, and immediately plops her nose into the correct one! i'm just so amused and delighted.

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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

started a few days ago getting her acclimated while i walked beside the bike, and we took our first trip around the block today. she stood up a few times, but for the most part was comfortable lying down.

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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

jean has earned 500 points in fast CAT since she started in february, so she got her DCAT title today (first was BCAT at 300 points). very proud of her! it has improved her recall and behavior around other dogs so much. 😊

 

this is what peak performance looks like. 😎

but seriously, this lil' chihuahua mix runs like a greyhound!

photos by stirling hasen.

 

we have a looong way to go, but i like to keep video records of even the not-so-good practice sessions. she's really disengaged with me for a big portion of this video (probably because it's our first time doing this outdoors). hoping to eventually get her into rally obedience. :)

 

it's her absolute favorite activity in the world!

 

i’m really vibing with this game. absurd, casual, sometimes disturbing fun. slapping and jumping are the only actions, and it’s very england.

 

echo loves the creek so much. definitely her most favorite activity. also my first time using sniffspot (private dog park; this one was about three acres and fully fenced in), and it felt like we weren't fenced in at all! there was a little walking trail and everything.

 

we recently watched maxxxine, which i thought was a good ending to that trilogy. (x and pearl are the other two.) in a violent nature was another one i enjoyed, even if it was a bit slow... perhaps intentionally.

we're watching longlegs tomorrow, which is supposed to be very unsettling (my favorite kind of movie). beetlejuice beetlejuice is coming out later this year, and with tim burton directing and a lot of the original cast returning, i think it's going to be decent!

if you hadn't already guessed, my favorite genre is horror. ;)

 

we had graduation last night! we did some rally practice since all the dogs had already passed all the test items, and echo loved it. could not get her to look at the camera because she loves to look at me always, haha. very proud of this rescue pup who has exceeded my expectations when it comes to training. she really is the dog i've wanted since i was a teenager. ❤️

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