My 50th Post!

When Dogs Fly (sort of)

Well, it is a damp, ugly day on Bully Hill.  The one redeeming part about a day like this is that I can take photographs without glare.  Thus, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade... or maybe a nice lemon meringue pie or something.  I could go for some pie right now, but in the meantime, I will just present some photos of the dogs playing:

I had to shoot the pictures of Kane jumping while holding the camera down and away from my body.  Kane wants to stay next to me, so it is tough to stand off in the distance and squat while directing her to jump over things.  Some of them turned out pretty good though.  It was a combination of luck and repetition.

Morning fun

I slept in a bit this morning and then took the dogs out in the light of day. We had some really nice light as the sun rose over the ridge and cast a warm glow on our little valley. It was very dramatic, so I decided I would pose the girls for an album cover-like shoot. The important thing here is to look away from the camera with thoughtful expressions.

Harriet is watching Cowboy. I'm sure Petunia is staring longingly at some poop she wants to eat, but the general viewer can't necessarily tell that from the photo. To the average Joe, these look like two stately, maybe even regal animals... ahh the magic of photography. Of course, what you don't see are the 15 shots that look like this:

or this:

Apparently, HT was having tongue issues.

Anyway, I took some more PR shots of Kane. She wanted me to chase her and try to take her stick away. She thought it was very enticing.

Although it appeared to be a very nice stick, long, not too thick, good strong wood, "chase" does not really get Kane tired. "Chase" just makes me tired... and nauseous. Consequently, being the one with the large, developed brain, I decided we would run the obstacle course instead.

I also got this video:

I like this one because Kane burps at the end. Hard work can make you gassy... or nauseous. The important thing is that Kane was tired and content. This is all very important because the dogs are going to be left to their own devices for most of the day. The Mrs. and I are going to go to the Horse World Expo extravaganza at the State Fairgounds. While this may not seem very manly, I want to shop for a tractor!

UPDATE:  No real tractor shopping to be done, but we did have fun.

Happy Birthday MLK

Today is Martin Luther King's birthday, so I have off.  In the spirit of the day, I got to work on a volunteer project that I need to get done.  The funny thing about being off of work is seeing the animals mid-day.

I looked out of the kitchen window and saw both horses sleeping soundly in the mud.  They looked very pleased.

Kane was snoozing:

I think I was disturbing her at this point, so I went back to my office and stumbled upon this scene:

They both looked a bit surprised to see me.  I have no idea what they were doing, but HT quickly scampered off and Petunia did her best to look innocent.

So strange.

Obedience jumps

Due to popular demand... and popular is a relative term for this blog... I am going to share my sage knowledge regarding the construction of obedience jumps.  After all, they are relatively easy to build and they can provide a lot of fun for your dog.

So here is the end product:

I actually wish I did one thing different for my jumps.  As you see, I used a 90 degree fitting at the top, but I now wish I had extended the vertical pipe above the top crossbar to guide the dogs a bit better.  I will give instructions which include this modification.  (Note, these plans are designed using stuff you can find at basically any hardware store.  You can go a lot fancier and get furniture grade pvc pipe and specialty fittings.  The benefit would be that normal pvc pipe can be damaged by UV rays.  That being said, I think it takes years and years for that to happen and these jumps do not support any weight so you don't really have to worry about a structural failure.) 

First, go to your local hardware store and locate the plumbing aisle.  I used 1" pipe.  They come in 10 ft. lengths for about $3.00.  You will need 3 lengths for one jump.  You will also need 6 end caps and 8 "T" fittings  (also called Tee Slips). 

Make sure the caps and fittings are for 1" pipe.  While you are in the aisle with the pvc pipe, look for a package of pvc primer and cement.  They come in little tin containers with screw tops.  Next, go to the aisle that contains electrical supplies and pick up some vinyl electical tape for accent striping.  This is optional, but if you love your dog, you will want his/her jumps to look nice.  (Note: pick his/her favorite colors.  If you don't know your dog's favorite colors, you might need to spend more quality time with your dog.)  Most hardware stores will carry your basic Scotch brand 3/4" electrical tape which comes in quite a few colors:

(Grey, Violet, White, Blue, Black, Orange, Brown, Yellow, Red, and Green)

I have seen all of these colors at the local True Value.  Finally, you will need a saw to cut the pvc pipe.  If you do not have a saw, you can purchase a small hand saw for about $10.

Now, there are official rules regarding agility equipment.  Although it is not necessary to construct your jump to this standard, the rules do provide a nice guide regarding bar heights.    Under the rules, crossbars are set to the following heights:
  Dogs measuring 12" or less must jump at least 12"; 
   Dogs measuring 16" or less jump at least 16":
   Dogs measuring 21" or less jump at least 22"; and
   Dogs measuring over 21" must jump at least 26".

The rules also require crossbars to be 4 ft. wide.  I made my crossbars 3 ft. wide and they have always been sufficient for my purposes.  (You can go with 4 ft. crossbars w/o getting an extra pipe).  I also used bar heights of 18" and 26" since my dogs are about 16" tall, but also tend to be very athletic.

So here is a diagram with your cut lengths:

OK, so I'm not exactly an engineer, but you get the idea.  Now, before you put this together, you will need to cut the top 4 "T" fittings into cups.  This is a pretty easy process:

(Not an engineer, but I can get a lot of mileage out of Microsoft Paint)

Once all your pieces are cut, you join everything using some pipe primer and then some glue.  Put caps on the ends of your exposed pipes, and then apply your accent stripes using the vinyl tape.  Obviously, the top two crossbars do not get glued.  The bottom crossbar needs to be glued for stability.

Now get your dog and enjoy.  Start off using only the bottom crossbar.  Click and reward your dog for jumping over it.

Have fun.

Huzzah!

First, all of us from Bully Hill would like to congratulate the Baltimore Ravens on a dominating win in Foxboro today.  We were all decked out in purple and glued to the television.

As you can see, Tubbs was riveted and remained so, even after the game.  In fact, we were all so excited, we went outside for a long playtime.

I did a little filming of Kane too.

As I keep noting, she is a good dog and will make a really nice companion animal.

Negotiations

I tend to listen to National Public Radio a fair bit.  I noticed today that some of our local programming has underwriting provided by local law firms.  Well, now that Little Brett Buckwalter is a partner in a fictitious law firm, I figured that I would ask him if Cocker, Blue, LaDeaux, LLP would underwrite this blog. 

Brett is a pretty reasonable rooster and the negotiations were easy because:  A) It does not cost anything to keep this blog; B) Neither of us have any idea what underwriting is; and C) Although the content of this blog is questionable at best, Brett is a rooster and his law firm does not actually exist.  Consequently, we just decided to place a logo for Cocker, Blue, LaDeaux, LLP under the blog.  Just look... it really is down there.  Anyway, it seems good enough and now I can say that my blog has under writing by a make believe law firm.