It's a big blogging world

Monday's dog training class got cancelled due to some severe thunderstorms and resulting wind damage around our training center. The building is concrete block, and sort of like a fortress except for one big window - obedience is mostly an INSIDE sport but the agility nuts are out there in the weather. Downed trees and power lines really made it a bad idea to try to drive to class, so I was sorta glad to get the call from Kim just before we left home. Good way to get some chores done! Naturally, in the Mauldin micro-climate at our house, the storms were just a nice steady rain.

Rowdy is running out of food, and slowly losing weight. Apparently his metabolism has kicked itself back up to his pre-injury level, and he's really burning the calories now. We weigh both dogs weekly - this has GOT to be the best way ever to control a dog's weight. We catch weight trends, either up or down, early and can really keep their weights stable. So I cooked dog food (translation: pulled some pre-cooked grain out of the freezer and opened some cans) to tide us over till the weekend, and am making sure he's getting plenty of training treats. Last night at Advanced Rally class, he ate a chicken breast, plus kibble treats. This was in addition to breakfast, LUNCH and dinner!

This week was the beginning of the Summer of Socks - an internet knitting event. Actually, I had hoped to join in, and since participation required you to have a blog - well, here we are. But I missed the deadline so I'm just an onlooker now. Holy cow. I've been reading these bazillion blogs by knitters who are knitting socks this summer. Internet knitting has exploded since I was last involved in it, and I thought it was huge then. As soon as I learn how, I'll put up a button linking you to the Summer of Socks 2007. It is AMAZING.

A cool thing I picked up reading all these other knitters' blogs:

63%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Online Dating

Rally class was fun last night - our teacher set up a course that had some very tricky turns and manuevering. Rowdy can't do all the Advanced exercises yet, so we did dumbed-down variations as we came to them. Twisting through the turns and walking a path that steered us around and beside signs was a lot like running through obstacle discrimination challenges on an agility course. Except - the challenge is to the handler, and not the dog! We did some nice Figure 8s. Rowdy is really starting to get the hang of these. A Rally course is sort of like a long, perverted Figure 8, with interruptions along the way. You are constantly twisting and turning you way around a course and the dog must truly understand heel position and be able to anticipate your moves in order to *remain* in heel position.