Walking with Dad

With Ren Fest only 11 days away, I have got to get serious about getting ready. I dropped off my Ren Gear at the cleaners (I couldn't face all of that ironing) and I'll pick everything up next Thursday. They might as well store them instead of me, right? I have my Fairever pass and I psaltery all ready to go. I need to practice the psaltery and juggling, but it's not the end of the world if I don't.

Mostly I'm worried about all of that walking, up and down hills, for 18 hours a weekend. I have been sedentary for the last year and I'm not sure I'm up to it. So Dad and I and Harley went walking on the B&A trail tonight. We did almost 3 miles and I didn't get tired at all until the last half mile. That's not a bad start. I'd like to go every day this week and next so I'm as ready as possible for the 25th. Then I'd like to keep doing it almost every day until my birthday because Harley needs the exposure to strangers, bikes and other dogs before his new obedience class starts. Isn't it great that his class starts on my birthday? Tomorrow I'm going to carry a water bottle and a spray bottle. A water bottle for drinking and a spray bottle for Harley. I can't seem to get his attention off of the bikes and other dogs, but I am sure the spray bottle will do the trick. Besides, he got a little overheated tonight, so it won't hurt him to get a little wet. Not that he'll see it that way...

Harley's Profile

This is what I wrote in on the Student and Dog Profile for Harley's application to the Dog Owner's Training Club of Maryland beginning obedience class. Do I sound like a wacky doggy mama?

Harley is an extremely bright dog and knows lots of tricks because he's so much fun to train. Unfortunately he is not obedient, being too spoiled for his own good. His sit/stays are solid, his recalls are not. He walks well on a leash but doesn't heel. He likes people once he knows them but he is hand shy and prefers not to be touched by strangers. He is dominant by nature but knows I am the boss, although he runs roughshod over my parents. He did well in the Petsmart class we just finished. I only put him in that to accustom him to other dogs while I waited for your classes to start this Fall. We can't wait!

So, what do you think?

Two weeks and counting

Ren Fest starts in two weeks and a few hours. You can check the counter to the right, if you need to know the exact number of hours, minutes and seconds. I paid for my Fairever pass today and should get it back in plenty of time. I had to email them my information and then call to pay over the phone. I know this is all about history and times of old, but c'mon people, get Paypal! I worked it out, by using the Fairever pass and going every day, of course, I am only paying $4.21 per day. That's an unbeatable bargain, isn't it?

With Ren Fest so close I pulled out my Unicorn Strings bowed psaltery so I can start practicing. I am so rusty it's scary. Not that it matters much, because I overtightened a string I was tuning and broke it and now I can't get it replaced. No one I have talked to has strings small enough and even if they did, none of them will even try to replace it. I tried, but I broke the string I had both times I tried and now I have no string left and can't replace it. I know I can get John to fix it at Ren Fest, but I didn't want to have to wait that long. He's going to be so disgusted with me for not practicing. Well, maybe not disgusted, but definitely disappointed.

This weekend I'm going to pull out all of my Ren gear and try it all on. I've lost some weight, so the stuff that was getting tight should fit again and I have new pieces to mix in. At last count I had something like five skirts, four or five chemises and two bodices. I also have a couple of gypsy hip scarves. With all of that, I should be able to do some really creative mixes. Maybe by the end of Ren Fest I will have lost some weight and the smaller of my two bodices will fit again, but in the meantime there's the one with the steel boning. I like the smaller one because it doesn't flatten out may top, but both of them are nice. I show a LOT more cleavage in Ren gear than I ever would otherwise, but that's not a bad thing, right?

My sister and her youngest son, Josh, were here for a couple of weeks and just left Monday. Harley and Josh became best friends and Harley has been moping around since he left. I know Josh hated to leave him behind, but there is no way on this earth I would let Harley leave me.

Speaking of Harley, he has his obedience class graduation tonight. I gave him a bath this morning so he would look his best in his pictures. It's all a little silly, but will make a great scrapbooking opportunity. It reminded me that I wanted to sign him up for the Dog Owner's Training Club of Maryland beginning class. I downloaded the dog profile and sign up sheet and sent them off with my check today. I probably sounded like a crazed doggy mama with my long notes about him but I wanted to be sure they knew what he is like. Maybe I'll type that up in another post and you can tell me if I sound nuts. I know I AM nuts, but that doesn't mean I want to sound that way.

Sorry it's been so long between posts. Look for more about Ren Fest in the next few months.

Obedience Class

Harley started obedience class tonight. It's long past overdue, but at least we're finally starting. The teacher is so young! He's in his early twenties and seems like just a kid, but he's good with the dogs and has quite a bit of experience. Harley liked the food he kept handing out, but wouldn't let the guy pet him. Harley did pretty well until my parents stopped by to say hi. From that point on all he would do is look around for them. We were in the Petsmart (not my first choice, but the only class I could find for right now) and every passing shopper became a distraction. I have no intentions of telling the teacher that I have been training dogs for ten years before he was born, nor that I taught obedience for five years. Let him think I'm an idiot, it will be less embarrassing that way. Harley is a lot of things, but obedient he is not.

He struggled a little bit because I've taught him so many tricks that he has trouble with the simple stuff. Just last night I was working on hand signals for all of his tricks. Many of them he already knew, but I added a couple of new ones. By the end of ten minutes he was doing all of his tricks with hand signals alone. However, in class, he wants to do his tricks instead of simply learning how to watch me.

It's going to be a tough class for me, because I am used to the old school methods with slip collars and leather leashes and sit and heel and so on. This deal of feeding the dogs to keep them quiet and having to treat them with food for every bit of attention from them just bothers me. Using a piece of food to teach a trick is one thing. Using food for obedience is something entirely different. I will go along with it and give it a fair shot, but it's not my style. I prefer the methods I learned 20+ years ago. Does that mean I'm getting old?