Gracie vs the Babble Ball and other stuff!

Mum held out one of Gracie's Christmas presents until she was feeling better and could get some video. Well, Gracie just loves her Babble Ball! Check this out...



Mum has to take it away from her after a little time, 'cause she'll get pretty wild, but she just loves her new toy!

It's been five days now and Mum is still sick. We're getting pretty sick and tired of it! And we're getting a good experience of cabin fever. She went to the Chiro today and got an adjustment to help and it did. Then she headed over to Whole Foods and loaded up on some herbs and homeopathics - they are already helping. And she bought herself a neti pot. She says it was kind of weird to use in the beginning, but really made her feel better, for a little while anyway.

We sure hope she feels better by tomorrow night - the training center is having a get together and open practice and we both want to run (me at low height and no frame or teeter, until I'm fully better). We need the exercise!

And she needs to get better to get me started on my strengthening program so I'll be ready for the Feb trials! Tonight she worked with me on my ball a little after doing some stretching. But we are way behind schedule.

Did I tell ya Gracie went to agility practice last Wednesday without me? Yep, she did it again. And she did a fabulous job! Her first run was kinda wild and crazy, skipped a few jumps, bailed her DW contact. But she was still focusing on Mum and made it through the entire course - Mum just went on when Gracie skipped a few things. She ran again about three times, full courses each time and did super good. She bailed nearly all of her DW contacts, so Mum is thinking again of what do to with her DW; but they'll come up with something.

On one run Gracie had to do the weaves as the second obstacle and didn't want to take the time to stop and do them, but Mum made her and she did well. Super proud of my sis, Gracie, she's really starting to show her stuff.

Mum has been working some on updating our JohannTheDog.com website - and adding in lots of stuff that's on sale. Pretty good sales going on, so you may want to check it out. And we're hoping to get all the Howling Howliday prizes in the mail tomorrow. We're still gathering up a few of the gift certificates.

I'm sure you probably saw it, but if you haven't please be sure and read the Sport Illustrated article on the Vick Dogs. It a wonderful article and pretty unprecedented for SI - hoping that it will change a lot of minds about the state of the pittie! We found it very interesting - here's what SI thought about Pitties in 1987 and here's what they think in 2008. Maybe times are changing?

And we're sure you've probably seen it, but if not you've got to see this vid from CNN about the pup that shoplifted a rawhide bone in Murray, Utah the day before Christmas. Priceless!

Over on our Raise A Green Dog blog, Mum and I wrote up a year end post - The top 5 things you can do in 2009 to have a healthier, happier pup and help the environment at the same time! Check it out and get some ideas for your new year's resolutions :)

Being into the conditioning and stretching subject over my short life, I was interested to read a blog post and responses on The Adventures of the Miller Four Pack blog. Several folks outlining their strengthening, conditioning, and stretching programs for their dogs, agility and non.

I've also been re-reading Sarah Johnson's pdfs on Conditioning and Core Strenthening, part of Nancy Gyes' article series of wonderful articles on many things agility, good stuff!

If you've been wondering if the Tug It tug toy from Clean Run is working for some dogs with no interested in tugging before, check out this post from Agility Adventures. Chloe gets her tug on for the first time!

That's it for now...Mum's gotta go rest up. Hope you all are having a great holiday time!