Exercising Augusta & Harley

Tonight I had the brilliant idea of training the dogs to run on the treadmill. I figure they like to run,  running on a treadmill is running, easy peasy. Right?

ENT WRONG!

The first session was horrific. Both dogs freaked out and could not understand what I was doing to them. I even tried to bribe them with carrots. No dice.

I was very close to giving up, but decided to Google how to train a dog to walk on a treadmill. After watching millions of You Tube videos and seeing all breeds of dogs mastering it, I decided to try it one more time.

This time around I was more relaxed as the trainer. And believe it or not they both did a millions times better. I still had to bend over {read quads burning like crazy for about 20 minutes after a crazy leg workout} and put my hands behind each of their front legs to keep them going, but their steps eventually become more natural.

At one point Harley come over to the treadmill and starting linking Augusta cause she was doing so good {obviously my human interpritation}. It was actually really sweat. :)

They haven't perfected it yet and we are still at a 1.0 speed, but we seem to be making progress. I can't wait to try it again tomorrow. This is going to be a good addition to their open space runs.

And the best part is, they are both worn out snoozing! Mission accomplished.

{Augusta} a.k.a White Beard

 

 

Augusta is a very special dog. She hates large groups of people, loud noises, thunder and being left alone. Her latest pet peeve is an empty water dish or dog food bowl. She has gotten into the habit of pawing at either bowl {even Harley's food bowl} when it is empty. P-Dizzy and I swear she just wants to keep us busy, waiting on her hand and foot.

After we fill up her bowl, because she just pawed at it like 50 times, she looks at it {to make sure it's up to her standards} AND THEN SIMPLY WALKS AWAY!!!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! 

 

But she can also be very sweat. Augusta will love you forever if you take her to look for rabbits in the open field, rub her belly, give her a blanket to lay on, praise her endlessly, give her a treat or be very quiet when she is sleeping. 

TUMBLEWEEDS... in our backyard!?!?

Our backyard used to look AMAZING. We had some nice bushes, a path, grass, fenced in garden. Then we got Augusta. We couldn't keep up with the yard work or find the motivation to pick weeds every day {read we are not yard people}. Before we knew it Augusta had dug holes and the grass was dieing {we have crazy water restrictions with not joke fines}. I am telling you this so you don't judge me when you see the pictures below.

Our backyard was in some real need of special attention. Without realizing it, we hadn't picked up our yard in a long.long time. This is what I raked up Saturday.  You are seeing that right, the piles are mostly made up of huge ginormous tumbleweeds. How did we get tumble weeds in our backyard when we have a fence? I thought tumbleweeds only "grew" in the country! Wikipedia says tumbleweeds form in the desert. Yep our backyard is basically a desert so that makes sense. I am not kidding, we probably have 10 large trash bags full of backyard shiznaz. 

Pile 1

Pile 2

In our usual fashion, Preston and I put money on the line to motivate each other to pick up the backyard. Basically if you do not pick it up during your week you pay the other person $20 and it's your turn again. Bribing the other person to do your shift is totally legal!

Any ideas on what we should do with our backyard? We have 2 dogs that love to run and play and bark. We never spend time on the patio, but I am sure this is because we are looking at dirt. We also hope to rent this house out a couple years so we would like it to be easy for non motivated renters as well.

Preston is voting for fake grass.  I cringe inside.

This is what I imagine.

I just read that fake grass contains varying amounts of lead, which gives off a smell and is obviously extremely hazardous for you. It also gets hotter than regular grass and can be irritating to the skin. Okay, who in their right mind would put fake grass in their backyard?!? And how does fake grass work with dogs?? Thoughts? 

I Need Cesar Millan

We kennel our dogs when we leave. We used to let me roam the house until Harley tour up our couches. After coming home to couch pillow stuffing everywhere and pillows outside we decided to start kenneling the dogs when we left.

It was the best decision ever. It seemed like they enjoyed the kennel and ran right into it.

Last week I got a new dinning room set from Craig's List {more on this later}. As a result, we moved the dog kennels downstairs. Today Preston came home from a trip to Pueblo {he works from home} and found Augusta waiting for him on the stars. Odd he thought as he knew he put both dogs in their kennels. He went downstairs to let Harley out and found that Augusta chewed her way out of her hard plastic kennel.

August's Kennel- lots of blood

Blood everywhere

How the hell does a dog chew themselves free from a kennel? What made her do this? Now what do we do? There was a lot of blood from her mouth. We can't let her chew her way out of another kennel. Any ideas/suggestions? Maybe Cesar Millan will read this and come to the rescue. Our thought process right now is to let Augusta roam the house {she has only chewed out of a dog kennel and fence} and keep Harley in the kennel. Will Harley become jealous? Please help!! We need ideas. Do you think she chewed out because we took the kennels downstairs?   

Fair Food

Growing up and into my late 20's my most favorite time of the year was the El Paso County Fair. I have so many fond memories of the fair. They are silly memories like a carnival game, or riding in my Poppy's golf cart, or wining the Sheep show, sitting in the Cattle Barn, the excitement of seeing a boy or boys, catching chickens, Friday and Saturday night dances, fair food, the adrenaline of the sale. Honestly the list goes on and on. 

My favorite "Fair Food" yes this is a coined term. Not sure who coined it, but Katie Coulson White comes to mind. Anyways my favorite Fair Food is hands down no contention Indian Fry bread. It might just be called Frybread, but because the food booth, the same booth and people mind you for as long as I can remember, called it Indian Fry bread that is what it will forever be known as in my book. 


Since we are in the month of July- official fair season I decided to try and make my own Indian Fry Bread for our camping trip. It wasn't bad. I made the fry bread on Thursday and we didn't eat it until Saturday. I think it would have been a lot better fresh.  

Pre-Cooked

Indian Fry Bread

Harley Supervising

Here is the recipe I used and the video I followed. The video definitely adds character! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• Hot shortening or oil in deep frypan or fryer 

Steps:

1. Sift dry ingredients.
2. Lightly stir in milk.
3. Add more flour as necessary to make a dough you can handle.
4. Kneed and work the dough on a floured board with floured hands until smooth.
5. Pinch off fist-sized pieces and shape into a disk
6. Disk must be rather flat, with a depression -- almost a hole -- in the center of both sides.
7. Fry in very hot oil or shortening (about 375°) until golden and done on both sides. Drain on absorbent paper.

website credit for recipe

LOVERS or HATERS

I might or might not have gotten in a dog fight. Well I didn't get in a fight with a dog, but Augusta did. Harley started it. 

We take our dogs to the open space behind some houses in our neighborhood. Augusta and Harley love it out there. They can roam, sniff and run free. Augusta particularly likes to flush out and chase rabbits. She is actually pretty good at it. Luckily she has never tried to gobble one up. I really think she just likes the chase. You should see her, she pounces and jumps and runs as fast as she can looking for rabbits. It might be her life calling. Harley spends his time sniffing with his pig nose, marking his territory and trying to keep up with Augusta.

Today it was just me on the walk. I was running along the path while the dogs did their thing. We came upon off leash dog #1 and his owner with no problem. Then came dog #2. The two owners immediately put their dog on a leash and the wife stood in front of it. I should have taken this as HEY STUPID gather your dogs, they are afraid their dog might attack yours. But I didn't. Augusta approached first and she immediately knew to keep going. But Harley... Poor Harley... He didn't know to keep going. He walked right up to the dog and of course the dog on the leash with the scared owners tried to pounce on him. Augusta being the protective female jumped in and they started to brawl. 

Basically a lot of teeth and noise. The owners were freaked out and cussing at me. They wanted me to stick my hand in there and grab Augusta. No way! Plus they were all moving around and I didn't have a clear shot at Augusta. 

To make matters worse their dog's collar came off. The owners freaked out even more. The fight broke up, but the owners still had some choice words for me. They thought my f'in dogs should be on f'in leashes. Sorry but no thanks. 

I understand that the owners can't control what my dogs do so that in turn makes them scared. Preston says I should have noticed that the owners were uneasy and I therefor should have crossed the ravine. I know he's right.  But the words that the guy called me infuriates me and makes me a little bull headed. 

I'll continue to take them to the open space and allow them to run off leash (there aren't rules that you must have your dogs on leash). But next time I will pay more attention to the other dogs and owners out there. Lesson learned. 

Oh the dogs are fine. There was no blood or bite marks. Just a lot of noise and teeth.

Lovers or Haters?

True Life Story

I woke up last night at 11:30pm to dogs aggressively barking. I realized our dogs were not in the room which meant they were probably the ones barking. I walk downstairs and yell, "Harley". He comes in from outback, but in a scared and hunched over position like mom it's not me. The barking still continues so I call Augusta. Sure enough it's Augusta. This strikes me as odd because Augusta hardly ever barks. If any of our dogs are barking it's usually Harley. But compared to the other neighborhood dogs Harley is very quiet.

I get the dogs back upstairs, tuck them into bed... Let me stop here. I know what you're thinking. Did she just say tuck them into bed? Yes I physically tuck Augusta into bed with a blanket. She gets cold easily. Harley is tough as rocks. He prefers to lay on his blanket. Back to the story... Two seconds later Augusta is up again barking aggressively. P-Dawg and I look outside... nothing. We close the curtains- thinking this will stop her. SHE KEEPS BARKING AND GROWLING! She jumps up onto our bed and lays at my feet, Harley goes and lays at the top of the stairs. The barking keeps up for awhile and then I fall asleep. 

Another bark. I wake up and convience myself and P-Dawg that I hear something. He gets up, grabs his gun and he and the dogs go looking throughout the house. I stay upstairs and look out our bedroom window into the back yard. I see naked P-Dawg and the dogs go out back and look around. Augusta starts barking, but they don't see anything. They shut the door and go back inside. I am still looking out the window when all of a sudden I see a person in a white shirt run across the neighbors back yard and out the gate (I actually hear the gate open and close). At this point I am glued to the window waiting, watching. I finally realize what I just saw and yell to Preston, "I saw someone and he ran down the road!!"

We then throw on some cloths and get into the truck. We drive around the neighborhood looking for any signs of life. Nothing.

We go home, tuck the dogs in and go back to sleep. Augusta doesn't make another sound for the rest of the night.

The next morning I notice our shed door out back is open. Odd. I don't remember it being open yesterday or last night. Could be a coincidence... 

We think the neighbors have a son. The loud blasting Metallica music is what tips us off. 

So the question is... 

Did I see a burglar or a kid sneaking out of his house? 

How I Hurt My Back.

I hurt my back about a month ago. 

My theory is I actually hurt it falling out of this...

while chasing these two...

 at John Martin over Labor Day Weekend playing in the...

doing this...

pulled by this...

with...

Josh & Ashley

Ashley & I

Me & Preston

Lindsey

and Taylor.

Three weeks later my back is still bothering me. I have been to a Sports Therapist and a Chiropractor. I am still not 100%. As a result I have not been able to workout. To compensate I have been eating clean and drinking this... 

Shakeology

So for now all I can do it rest.

Meet Harley

Preston and I just returned from Vegas. We had a great time, won some money and Preston played well in his pool tournament.

Since our return we got a new puppy!


Meet Harley.

He is a full bread Pitbull and about 13 weeks.


Best Friends!

Augusta's First Incline!

This morning, on the incline, was full of new experiences...
 

New Experience #1

Augusta went up the incline and down Bar Trial for the first time! She did really good and had a great time (in my opinion)! I kept her on the leash for most of the incline due to her bundle of energy, curiosity of the new surroundings and my fear of her running under the other goers. She wasn't too fond of the metal tubes and even refused to move. Jackie and I had to pick her up and plop her onto the next step a couple of times. Once we got past the false summit and most of the people I took her leash off. She did an amazing job. She would go up a couple of steps and then turn around and wait for me. With a little more practice she won't even need a leash. Augusta finished her first incline in about 28 minutes!! I was a little worried that she wouldn't have enough energy or legs left for the run down Bar Trial. Boy was I wrong! She ran her little legs off! She would run to Jackie, then back to me, then back to Jackie.

This is nap #1. She is now on nap #2.  

New Experience #2  
Jackie and I decided to start at the very bottom of the incline. We usually hike up to the incline from the parking lot and start there. The extra steps added a new element of difficulty. My goal this morning was to reach the top in 39 minutes. Goal achieved! I reached the top in 38:11. Yes, Augusta beat me!  

New Experience #3 
If you run down Bar Trial, tripping over a rock or your feet is just a matter of time. Well today was my day to fall. All of a sudden I go flying through the air and do a perfect volleyball dive. I skinned up my hand and my entire right side of my body is pretty sore. I am going to have some killer bruises. I am not gonna lie, it shook me up a little bit. Oh ya, I also landed in dog poop. I even had some on my face! I hope this fall makes me more fearless and not fearful!