Vacation Pictures

Here are some pictures so far.

These are from the Museum of Natural History.











These are from the dog park.









Wow, I almost lost this post. I was about to paste the html for the last image and accidentally clicked the big red X. Luckily, the post was saved as a draft. I don't much care for laptops, so I would have probably just packed up and gone back to the house without posting. So, enjoy the pictures.

My vacation has been great so far. I (obviously) took Zen to the dog park today. I wasn't sure how it would go because he has discovered his manliness and has been kind of a jerk to other dogs lately. He settled right in though. He even consented to play with a very pushy boxer. Mostly he swam and fetched. There weren't a ton of dogs there, but there were about 8-10. We left when it started to rain and drove out to Reliant to set up. We have a really good grooming space along the wall. We show tomorrow at about noon, and then do meet the breed at 1 p.m.

Chris Ann saw us walking around, so I stopped to chat. She thinks Zen is huge. Yes, he is over-standard, but he isn't huge. :) I will measure him again, but I think he is under 21". She asked if everything else was great about him, basically, was I happy with him. I couldn't ask for a better dog. I'm truly thrilled with the big red goob. She said the height won't keep him from finishing, which, I knew that too. :)

I will try to get back up to another Starbucks to post more later. This computer doesn't have a card reader for my 50D, so any pictures will be from either my point and shoot, or my powershot s3. The ones today were taken with the s3.

Bento Ball Review

Against my better judgement, (I'm a poor student remember)I bought the Bento Ball today.



It lasted all of 10 minutes before Zen popped the treat out of it. I put the treat back in and he popped it out in another 30-40 seconds. Seems that slobber really makes it easy for the treat to squeeze out. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

Later I took a marrow treat and put it in there and that kept him busy for a while. He likes the toy, it's just easy to get treats out of.

Also, Zen marked for the very first time today. He totally marked in Petsmart. I'm hoping this doesn't become habit. I don't allow marking on walks, we walk, and they stop to potty when I allow it. I don't stop near mailboxes or any man made object that can be marked, but Zen has pretty much not lifted a leg until today. He usually just stands and pee's. When we came home he demonstrated his new found manliness by going and lifting his leg on a bush when I asked if he needed to potty before we went inside.

Making Time

I'm making time for this post. I have a pretty set schedule during the week, it has wiggle room, but I usually do the same things daily. I get up about 6am and walk Zen while the other two potty in the yard. He gets to walk so that we have a little one-on-one time and a mile walk is more tiring than just trotting around the backyard for 20 or so minutes. He and Rumor hang out in the yard while I shower. Carrie gets to sleep on the bed. I leave for work about 7:40-7:50 (depending on if I'm running late or not), so the dogs are crated all day. My mom is usually home, so if they need out she lets them out, but I get home @ 4:30pm. The dogs go outside to potty, and I will go out and kick the soccer/basketballs for them, start the sprinkler for them to play in or whatever. Between 5 and 7 I get my household stuff done. Mowing, cleaning, dishes, cooking, some training etc. At 7:30 I leave for the gym most nights. Wednesday is training night and Zen and I go to the park for that, Tuesdays I'm going over to a friends house to play games. I try to be home to walk dogs by 9 or 9:30. It takes an hour to walk two miles with potty breaks and some minor training along the way. After the walk if they haven't eaten, they get fed, if they have eaten, I might do a little training. I try to be in bed by 11 or 11:30. Weekends are usually pretty lax and lazy around here. If we don't have anything scheduled then I sleep in and then just play with the dogs throughout the day. We might head to Petsmart or the park, maybe a local church to play ball, just whatever I feel like doing.

Anyway, the point to all of this is I skipped our walk tonight to make a little time for the blog. I want to do a little reading and take a long bath as well, so I had to fit it in somewhere.

Next Wednesday we leave for the big Houston dog show, and our yearly vacation. This will be Zen's first year to spend at the bay and my first year in almost 6 that I am going solo. My brother will come out and visit me a few times I'm sure, but this will be a week of just me and the dogs hanging out. I'm looking to catch up on some reading and napping while I'm there. I will probably see what I can do in the way of fishing and will spend a good part of my time in the water. We will be close enough to Houston that if Zen is on good behavior we can make a few trips to the dog park. This may be my last vacation until I graduate from nursing school, so I'm going to enjoy it.

So, it's a major at the show, but I'm not expecting much. I don't think Zen has grown any taller, but he has lost some coat recently and he looks thin to me. I have begun feeding him more, but I think it's just a phase that he's going through. I have volunteered him to participate in meet the breed while we are there, so that should be fun. Houston is one of my favorite shows because it's SO big, there are tons and tons of vendors. It's one of the only places you will see conformation, agility, obedience, rally, and flyball all under one huge roof. Lots of Texas ACD people go to this show, so I will get to catch up with everyone I don't normally see.