The little buggers...

A few blogs back, I wrote that given the location of our house, up on a hill, we probably wouldn't be attacked by black flies.  I am happy to report that this is true.  Although black fly season has started in earnest, we have not had any up where we live.  We have, however, a lot of mosquitoes.  They are vicious little things and there are plenty of them.  So, we did what most people do in Huntsville, and bought ourselves bug jackets.  Without that jacket, I wouldn't have been able to do my planting this past week.  These jackets have come in handy, especially when we took Cooper to his agility class this past Wednesday.  It had rained, it was humid and the little buggers, including black flies, were all over the place.

While on the agility topic, we are very happy with the Coop's progress, so are the trainers. Last week's session was a lot of fun and Coop got to run a whole course.  He did most of it correctly and missed only two jumps.  I hate to say it but we are learning quickly that the dogs will do well as long as their handlers do well.  If our cues or hand motions are not quite right, then we cannot lead the dog properly through the course.  I must say that, at times, I feel like we are learning how to dance:  front cross, rear cross, etc.  A front cross is where the handler changes side in front of the dog's direction of motion.  Sounds complicated?  It is not, really, but it takes a little bit of coordination.  The trainers used their own dog, Spryte, to demonstrate the course.  Spryte is a 13 year old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever who is deaf. She has competed in many agility trials in the past. Would you believe that I got to run the whole course with her and she did it perfectly.   I must say that I quite like this agility thing.  It is our hope that, perhaps one day, Cooper will get to do trials also.  That would be fun.

Last Wednesday night, we also started the first of six Focus classes for Cooper.  It is with a group of 4 dogs only, so each dog gets a lot of attention and practice time.  It is not as much fun as agility but this training is very important and will help strengthen his focus and recall.

This past week was busy with planting.  But there is something to be said about not planting before May 24.  At least that is true for the Muskoka region.  We had some very cold nights the past few days and some areas got frost.  We thought we had lost our hanging baskets but they seem to be perking up now.  For the next few days, we will leave them in the screened porch until the weather warms up. The perennials that I planted seem fine.

Given that yesterday was too cold to do any work outside, I decided to bite the bullet and attempt to do the BoatSmart study/exam.  It took me 5 hours, online, to go through each module and complete the test.  I passed with flying colours.  I now can ride our boat!  Yay!  But I will say that doing that test online is brutal:  each module is timed and it is impossible to go faster even if you want to.  It is very time consuming but the good thing is that I have my boating licence for life.

Not much else has happened.  Russell is doing well and continues with his fitness, same for me.  He has been buying himself some "tools" for the yard/property so he is a happy camper.

That's about it for this week's blog.  We will be going to Montreal for a few days and visit our parents.  While we're away, Cooper will be staying at Nathan and Darlah's, aka Camp Talemaker, where he will have nothing but fun.

I wish you all a great week and hope the weather warms up.

A good old game of tug-o-war...Cooper always wins!

Anne in the latest Huntsville fashion, a Chanel Bug Jacket!