Safety First

I've realized lately that lots of our training, and lots of our equipment, has to do with safety.

Elka is on a collar and leash when we go outside, to make sure she's safe. She can't decide to run into the road, or chase something and get off our property, anything like that. On our walks, she's on a harness and collar, with liberty's attachment to make sure more than one thing will have to fail to put her in danger; not that I'm sure she'd just hare off somewhere the instant she had a chance, but better safe than sorry. See, there it is again.

In the car, she has a harness which hooks to the built-in child seat anchor vehicles have. In the case of an accident, it will hopefully protect her, and also the humans in the car, preventing the 75 pound dog in the back seat from becoming a missile within the vehicle. It also keeps her from just jumping out when a door is opened, so her exit can be controlled to a safe place and situation.

Wordless Wednesday February 25 2015

(This picture was from August. I miss August. So does Elka)

Today is Love your Pet day!

Well, we're hanging on here in frigid central New York. Persistent single digits, lots of snow, wind chill....it's been a brutal winter. Lots of laziness, lots of huddling on the couch in hoodies and under blankets. To add insult to injury, even sunny days aren't warm ones. Quite the opposite!

But evidently today is Love Your Pet Day.

Wordless Wednesday November 19 2014

Wordless Wednesday October 22 2014

Wordless Wednesday October 15 2014

Black and White Sunday October 12 2014

So in my Internet wanderings, I found this website, Sporkforge.com , which said it had "image processing utilities". Okay. Like what?

Well, they've got an ACII image generator, which didn't work out so well with this particular picture. But the oil painting generator? Nailed it!

I mean, in a lot of ways, I guess it still just looks like the original picture (I selected the "medium" brush for this one. If you come back on Wednesday, you can see a picture with the "heavy" brush!)

Goodbye, Summer

Elka and I have different perspectives on fall. 

She likes pouncing at the leaves when they blow. She likes sniffing around leaf piles, because to her, they must just be this magical collection of smells.

Wordless Wednesday September 24 2014

Wordless Wednesday September 17 2014

Wordless Wednesday September 10 2014

Stray Comments while Walking

"That's a beautiful Doberman. I used to love those dogs in the 90's."

"What kind of a dog is that?"

"Sure, she's friendly, as long as I don't come near you."



"Is that a Great Dane?"

"Oh, a Doberman! You don't see too many of them anymore."









"Awww, she's such a cutie!"

"She's so well behaved."

"Is that a Greyhound?"

Wordless Wednesday July 9 2014

Wordless Wednesday July 2 2014

Wordless Wednesday June 11 2014

Black and White Sunday, Jun 8 2014

With my currently bum ankle, we haven't had a real walk since That Fateful Day. I think both Elka and I are going a little stir crazy. I am happy to say that the ankle is improving. The bruising is gone, there's a teensy bit of swelling still, and it only hurts sometimes. Still, I don't want to push it too soon and reinjure myself. It's tough taking it easy, when the weather is so beautiful!

Wordless Wednesday June 4 2014

(black and white and mostly wordless. I'm frequently happy/amazed with what editing my cell phone camera will do)

Wordless Wednesday May 28 2014

Happy 5th Birthday, Elka! And many more!

Our Elka V is now 5! I don't know how that happened. It seems like it can't be all that long ago she was an itty bitty puppy, peeing on the floor and chewing on the kitchen wall and falling asleep on our laps in a warm bundle of puppy brownies. Well okay, I guess she still does the lap bit.

Wordless Wednesday May 14 2014