Cabin Fever

Another dull January day. (But I'm glad we don't live on the East Coast, with all the snow out that way.) One ray of sunshine is the azalea blooming at home. It makes me happy every time I look at the plant. A friend gave us this plant many years ago. She passed away longer ago than I like, but the azalea keeps going.

Last night was a difficult one at Agility Class. It seemed that many dogs had a bad case of cabin fever and were reactive and over-stimulated by the other dogs and the different environment. Fortunately I was mostly able to keep Tango focused on the small behaviors we were doing between the more active ones. We're still in Beginners class, so the behaviors are simple. But Tango jumped over all 3 jumps on the recall. And he kept me at top speed for the curved tunnel - straight tunnel sequence! (Hope said that Dee, our instructor, commented to her, "Look at your sister go!" Yup, I was truckin'!)
-Fran

It's No Wonder We're Grumpy!

Walk into any public place around here and you'll be faced with snarls. Yes, from the people. Just try to strike up a pleasant conversation and you'll get an argument. And the dogs are no better. Last night at Agility Class there were a couple of minor spats. My Ceilidh will generally snarl at other dogs if she's being held and the dogs get too close but last night she almost started in on other dogs when she was on the ground, and the other dogs just looked at her!

This morning I heard an interesting statistic that may explain things. Here in Chicagoland, during the month of February (granted, today's only the 8th, but still...) we've seen a total of 11 minutes of sunshine. Combine that with the 40+ inches of snow we've gotten this season so far and we've got massive cases of cabin fever! No relief from the snow in sight, but - wait - is that a break in the clouds I see?