Ball Face

Pretty much every morning lately I run before I go to work or school and Izzie accompanies me down in the basement where the "home gym" is. She gets annoyed when I'm exercising because I'm not paying attention to her but I have lots of toys down there for her to play with so she can suck it up lol. She doesn't care for most toys though... Except one toy.

Play ball?

She loves her ball. That right there is ball face and it's incredibly cute no? So when I'm done running I stretch of course and as I do that I toss the ball for her a couple times. She's really funny about it, gets really into the game and does some interesting things. 

Throw the damned thing already!

Such as:

- Barking at me very loudly.

- Barking at me using indoor frustrated "huff" bark.

- Using my face as a launch pad to vault herself off to get the ball.

- Pushing the ball into my hands, feet, knees, etc.

- Throwing the ball at me.

- Chattering her teeth.

And the most hilarious thing she does when playing ball?

Izzie, you're terrible.

She humps my legs/feet/arms with the ball in her mouth. This only happens when she really gets into it and I'm not throwing the ball fast enough for her. She's a strange little dog but I love her. Really people with normal dogs must be so bored all the time, my little weirdo keeps me laughing always.

International Puppy Day

I've been informed that today (or yesterday) is Puppy Day. So being that day I figure I ought to post a bunch of Izzie puppy pictures.

First night home.

Izzie was a crazy little whirlwind of a puppy, I miss it. She matured quickly due to events and a sort of pressure to make my puppy into a perfectly behaving little soldier. If I knew then what I know now...

See how crazy bad she looked!

Of course she was the cutest thing since My Little Pony so I absolutely adored her, badness and all. In fact I rather enjoyed my bad little land shark puppy. Especially when she looked like this.

Melted by her looks, still am.

So at 6 months old tragedy struck in the form of a cat named Jersey. A very evil kitty. Izzie nearly lost her eye and was forced to be on rest for months. Resting puppy does not rest on her own, so I had to make her do it. Le sigh. If I knew then what I know now... 

Much to her dismay, we could not get animal planet with her cone.

It's been a journey. They say you don't always get the dog you want, but you get the dog you need. My little nutbar puppy with a wonky eye has taught me more than I ever imagined. She taught me patience, kindness, how to walk away, and brought me the friends I cherish today. I would never have rediscovered agility if it wasn't for her.

Really, she was a complete nutbar. 

To my partner in crime and , the most tolerant dog in the world, thanks for putting up with me through all my learning years.

Always a smile, even when being tortured by a tutu.

Here's to our past adventures and lessons and to many more in our future. I love you little Pug, you're so good to me.

Best Friends Forever <3

“It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.” 
― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog 

She Spoils Me

Really. Izzie so spoils me, she's just so smart! The past two nights of dog stuff have just been wonderful and she amazed even me!


Agility last night we worked on having tight fast turns and she did very well. I'm learning to trust her more which is allowing me to pitch her and go which really speeds her up, she knows her job so now it's time to stop holding her hand and just trust and run. We also worked on speed and weaves and more handling and she did awesome at that too, her weaves are really coming along nicely!


Then tonight we had Scenthurdle practise and since only four of us showed up we did a couple runs with a full box. Well Izzie has been having some trouble with a) working away from me to drive to the box and find her dumbbell and b) keeping it in her mouth all the way back to me. Tonight though it's like a lightbulb went off in her head, she was perfect. She didn't hesitate to leave me to go and find her dumbbell and she flew right back and delivered it mostly to my hand. Okay she tends to throw it at me, but whatever! She was perfect for all three runs, but we only got video of two. Here they are:

Aren't we lookin' good? All of the dogs except Jethro the Sheltie are newbies, coming along nicely I'd say!

11/52: Reminiscing

11/52: Reminiscing, originally uploaded by mandypug.

The thing about wrinkles is they always make Izzie look like she's pondering life's most important things. Like how they get the caramel inside Caramilk bars, or what goes on in a certain Flat Coated Retriever's noggin.

What I was thinking about however was how far we've come in agility. This weekend we only Q'd 2/6 runs, but every run was fantastic.

On Saturday Izzie and I started things out with a fantastic Advanced Standard run that resulted in a Q. Izzie was faster than she's ever been and nailed all her contacts and weaves. Very good! Our second standard that day was also fast and fun but she refused a tunnel so we didn't Q. Third was Advanced Jumpers, I went into it with the mindset to just run and not worry about mistakes. It was perfection and we Q'd! I ran the outside and just let go and we did brilliantly. I definitely need to do that more.

Sunday we didn't Q at all, but all of our runs were really good with just a few things here and there. Our steeplechase was fast and fun, except I completely forgot where I was going. Whoops. Izzie didn't seem to notice though and just had fun, go Pug. Then our first standard that day Izzie was motoring, but she went wide off contacts and had a little bobble in the weaves that ate up time. Fixable things. Our last run, a second standard, was better than the first one but again there was some weave bobbles and they ate up time.

Overall it was an awesome weekend and i had a great time with great friends. Izzie did the best she's ever done and I'm very proud of her. I can't wait until next month's trial!

Rally Fun Match

Izzie and I went to our first Rally fun match ever today and she did awesome! We did a Novice run and scored 99 out of 100 which was basically High in Class (she got a prize, a Snoopy dog toy), she's certainly come a long way! No photos or video of that run, but here's a picture of our score sheet.

Then we did an Excellent run and it went pretty good. We scored 78/100 because i messed up the jump twice, I was supposed to run past it not walk, would've gotten 98/100 if I did it right. Womp. Other than that we were good! Jolene from One Collie got video of that one:

Doing this fun match has made me feel better about Izzie's début at the Red Deer trial next month. She can do it! Also, as you can see she's feeling much better, her butt wound is healing nicely and we can't wait for the trial this coming weekend!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

9/52: Hurt, originally uploaded by mandypug.

  Izzie and I are off all dog activities for the week due to her butt injury. It is boring not only for her, but for me too. I never realized how much time I spend doing small things with her during the days. I've done some stuff with Chai but it's not the same.  

So yesterday I figured what the hell, a little Rally is low impact and at least makes her use her mind a bit. So 5 minutes of heeling and other Rally moves later I was stunned. While she tried to play tug with her lead until I told her to "get in", as soon as we were working it was like she was a pro. Obviously some time off does her good, maybe she sits and reflects on things. She was just so excited to be doing something with me, her focus was fabulous. It made my heart happy.

We'll see what happens at Rally class on Friday and then at agility on Tuesday. She did not understand what was going on last night when we did not go to the car at precisely 6:45pm to go to class, she was wild and kept mauling my leg because I guess she felt I was depriving her. There is no doubt she loves her 'gilitys. Okay I was going a little nuts too, I really do look forward to each and every one of my dog classes every week and it pains me to miss them. I can't wait to be back at it (sounds like I've been gone for ages but it hasn't even been a week, jeeze).

Mishmash IV

I'm in third year university apparently which is the land of projects. I hate projects, especially group ones. Though I seem to have lucked out this time and gotten good partners.

Izzie had to go to the vet today. One of her anal glands ruptured, it still looks really gross but she's on drugs so it can heal up nice. She's never had an anal gland issue ever before so when this popped up so suddenly it was strange.

We're off all training for a week for sure, we'll see from there but she should be better in about 7-10 days.

I've been listening to a lot of music lately instead of having the television on for background noise. I kinda like it. 

I hate folding laundry.

I discovered that my Gameboy Advance still works and have rediscovered the epicness that is Pokemon Yellow (you know, the one where Pikachu follows you around.) Yeah I'm cool, you know it. 

New job is still going well. Izzie loves one of my coworkers enough to do tricks for him (even the more complex ones), that's a first. 

Izzie's AAC Stats page isn't updated yet and it's bothering me, I know she for sure got her ADC title though because I got the certificate in the mail last month. Oh well, eventually it'll get updated maybe.

I'm seriously excited for the Red Deer trial and Izzie's début in Rally there and more box loading for No Nonscents! 

When the sun shines through my house's windows on a sunny day, I want to curl up in it and sleep.

I'm VERY proud of my Auntie Hev. More about that at a later date!

I think I'm going to re-dye my hair blue instead of purple at some point soon. Feelin' like a bit of a colour change.

It's been over a year since my last piercing and I have a craving to get another done, just don't know what I want.

Well I'm going to go snuggle my little Pug now, enjoy this video!