Agility Camp #3 and 3 Dogs

My day started early. Packing lunches, leashes, repellent and fitting harnesses, putting on ID tags, taping my ankle and Charm's...we both have some tendon problems going on...and last but not least cutting up dog treats for agility camp for three watchful dogs; Domino, Charm and Ra.

We didn't get many pictures of the first part of the day because Marja and I were juggling three dogs...but we had to capture this moment with Charm, Dakota and Domino. Dakota was visiting all the way from Chicago.

Domino and Ra did pretty good for their first time and Charm has definitely learned a lot. So it was time for a lunch break, but first...SWIMMING!

Then it was back to work and a move over to the real agility course where the rookie dogs got a thorough introduction to agility.

Ra made some impressive jumps for his first time.

Even though he wasn't convinced it might be easier to go through rather than over. But the pause table was a welcome break for both Marja and Ra...see its not as easy as it looks, huh, Marja?

Charm and Domino took a break in the shade but Charm was amazed to see Ra doing agility.

Whoa, Ra can jump!

Then it was Domino's turn.

This is a lot of work, mom!

Sometimes the trainer helped show how its done.

Some of the dogs were experienced but they like to watch each other no matter what. Dogs are very competitive.

Wow that's a high jump Domino!

The little dogs made it look so easy...Zoe and Haley were the winners of the time trials...they made the big dogs look bad.

The rookies were thinking what is all this jumping and running stuff?

So it was time for another splash in the creek.

Where Domino did a very very good pit gator impression in the tall grass.

Some dogs went home, but some stayed to play fly ball. Charm was ready and willing.

And Domino was like, what's fly ball mom?

Everyone got a good rest and then it was time for fly ball.

The trainer worked with Charm and I worked with Domino and Dakota was racing ahead.

Domino learned to trip the trigger to get the ball right away but he didn't want to carry it, he wanted to know if Charm had a better one than he did.

Charm was so beyond pleased with herself she learned to trip the trigger to release her ball. After that she was zooming ahead of everyone.

It was a gorgeous day and all the dogs had a great time and learned a lot. Not just about agility, but hanging out with new dogs and people and seeing new things. Domino learned not to obsess over chihuahuas so much. Its always sad for me leaving that are, its so pretty.

On the way home we stopped to do a little geocaching.

And along the way stopped to visit the local bison who wanted to be petted. The dogs weren't too sure why Marja stopped to pet bison.

So we survived a three dog trek to agility. Everyone survived, no chihuahuas got eaten and we had a really great day with gorgeous, gorgeous weather, good company, good food and not one single complaint...except maybe a tick or two. Oh well.

May 24 Agility Camp

It's been a dog-filled weekend, beginning with obedience yesterday, the dogs all off to play at our early Memorial Day Picnic yesterday afternoon, oh the fun of lots of dogs and kids running amuck with frisbees and wagons and balls, and a full day of agility camp today.

Today was Miss Charm's day to shine all on her own. With lots of the things she loves to do like JUMPING!

Over poles and through tires.

She's settled right in and tackled her more difficult challenges with a renewed sense of confidence.

And her favorite obstacles with gusto.

Today she shared the course with one of her vet techs, and her dog, Zoe...a pekingese who made agility look easy! Imagine! That little dog flew through the course and over the jumps.

Pretty good for a little fur ball.

Pit mix and pekingese sharing a sunday.

Charm really did a good job on the training course.

And of course she loves those fly ball jumps.

After taking a break for lunch and a swim...OH...was Charm excited to get a chance to swim. She has missed swimming so much. She ran around in circles of joy. Anyway, after that we graduated to the Regulation Agility Course.

Where she had to learn to tackle much higher jumps...with a little patience and persistence.

And real weave poles.

And that A-Frame seemed awfully high.

And the teeter seemed awfully far off the ground.

But she got lots of love in between.

Kisses and hugs.

And on every break she got to go swimming.

And she even got to do a little sightseeing on the way home.

So here's a little video of her very very first attempt to run a regulation course...by the end of the day she did a pretty good job and I got much better too. Charm got a big kick out of her "mommy" having to be trained. She just sat back and laughed. But Phew...are we tired after all that running!

Winding down to the final chapter of the forest

I was reading The Way of the Peaceful Warrior recently and a phrase struck me about how life is not a private affair, its stories and teachings are meant to be shared. It made me think about how and why the Forest Archives came into being. Which brought me to the conclusion that has a very complicated answer intertwined with the evolution of a journey.

It was a journey I embarked upon personally which spread into so many aspects of my life and touched me in ways I cannot begin to explain.

It began as a respite. It grew into a deeper connection with faith, it transformed into a personal clarity, at times it became an exile which grew into a love and trasnformed into a joy. At some point I was driven from the sunnier places to the darker places and there were times when there was not much distinction between the forest and my self. Time stopped and meaning changed and I saw the world through different eyes.

But eventually the noise of the world filtered in and time started rustily ticking forward again and I knew that time rarely moves forward without running out. Time has no place in a forest but man packs it in and plants it everywhere.

I have spent a lot of time awestruck by this organism known as a forest. It has a voice and a design and one could spend a lifetime deciphering both.

There was no point to the Forest Archives but to attempt to paint a picture of a place that is fast disappearing. I had other goals along the way but they faded.

I went into it as an outsider, I became familiar and all too soon I am an outsider once again. Life bends and winds itself the way it will and most of us are powerless to stop its direction.

I will visit the forest as long as I am allowed, but the Forest Archives is coming to an end as inevitably as any volume of work. As sure as I can read the hour of the day without a watch or the changing weather without a forecast, I know that this particular journey is ending and I have walked many steps lately weighed down by a sense of the finite.

Its human knowledge of endings which taints our souls and tainted souls cannot really understand a forest’s voice. The forest operates on the premise that everything is infinite, otherwise all that lives within it would despair over their tenuous lives.

I always posted photos under a strict rule for myself that they had to be from the same day and it made me a disciplined photographer. I never aspired to be a good photgrapher, I just aspired to document a forest. So today it is just some favorite photos from the past.

The Forest Archives are definitely approaching an ending and I haven’t decided where it will go from there. Life has a way of surprising us with the future. For now it is merely a postscript in which the author walks the dogs and quietly closes the doors behind me and leaves the key under the mat.