Hi from Serena

[Stefanie]

Oh poor Serena,

PLEAES – Lulu is right the main thing is that the two of you are having fun what you are doing. I am getting quite upset with those people that think that know it all (being in any world including the rose world). They destroy the spirit and later on wonder why their Clubs/Societies struggle to sign up new members.

I have fought with rose judges that loudly proclaimed that a particular rose that was on show should have never been entered as it was a bad example. The poor owner of the rose heard this comment and cringed and vowed NEVER to exhibit again! That is BAD BAD BAD practice of any judge/trainer/know it all. Criticism should be constructive and helpful and lead to you to be the best you can ever be. That might not be Olympia material but still as long as you feel you have achieved!

Surely Eluane is not stressed – she is eager to please. If she would be stressed she sure would show behaviour signs you would pick up and if she would not enjoy it she would run into the opposite direction. When I had my horse and with all my dogs, my cats and even our African Gray’s I could clearly tell when they did not enjoy something!

Lulu: chicken training courses????? Now I have heard it all. I have seen the Clicker being sold here but not very often. I would love to try it just for fun – maybe the Guinea Fowl will respond (or could I keep baboons at bay with it, that would be a new approach and would earn tons of money here, they are a real pest)

Serena: loads and loads of prayers that your tests come back to your liking. Don’t we not know how expensive illness is! One of the sisters at the hospital defined it the other day: The moment you have been diagnosed with something you will haemorrhage money.

Give your knees a rest – look at the roses in your garden (only look, no digging! )

Keep us updated

[Lulu-amongst-the-blooms]

Yes, clicker with chickens is for the trainers benefit, not the chicken's! It teaches timing eggsellently and shaping.

The other thing that occured to me to come back and say is about eluane being stressed...their is little doubt in my mind our animals are influenced by us. Serena, so many of us drawn to animal training are fraught perfectionists, and gardening, lol. Its so funny we should be drawn to things which are harder for us to ontrol, and that in my mind, total control of destroys the beauty. Eluane is allowed a personality. As her pack leader is a perfectionist its not surprised she tries to be too, its allowed. I actually believe a totally stressfree life is pretty unatural and posibly unhealthy. I don't mean yorture, but for elune to have a job of work and the 'stress' of learning keeps her brain ticking.

Re control. Someone i know who takes part in the nationl garden scheme open ardens here...gArdens of normal gardeners picked out for beauty and interest, is what i think of as a control gardener. I have never seen more perfect grass, or plants. No signs of disease, the grass stands short, evenly spaced and to attention, weeds would never dare grow and i am sure the plants are so scared they grow in the shape this person wants them to. Its impressive, its perfect, and its utterly souless.

My dogs, big dog and dog dog, big dog is not bright. She came to me from a friends showing kennels, after an operation for a bone problem which while not affecting her makes her poor genetic breeding choice, and as such this good breeder will not show her either. As a dog that had a confused adolencance, moving from kennel to house dog there, too young thinking she was special and a leader, then moving to a more normal domestic situation, she is very dominant and also nervous. Not a food combination. I took the decision early to work on only what we needed to. So she has recall, she now walks confidentally on shiny floors, that sort of thing. That she knows 'sit' now is a miracle, and she need not learn any more imo. I fit round her. Dog dog is brighter and has learned other stuff (she is no collie) and enjoys training. We get stuff wrong, and she will always be a theif. I can pretend she is not, and feel like a failure, or i can laugh, admit my fault and leave her locked out of the kitchen. The latter is a better solution for me and us, but a grave fault in the eyes of many who insist on greater obediance. More of an issue for me is that i have fot a dog with strong hunt instinct to be chicken safe in my presence. Yes, its hard, stressful even, for her, but its of more benefit to our daily life.

[elemire]

Originally Posted by SerenaSYH

But if Eluane is unhappy, then I should quit!

I think it is too exaggerated conclusion. If you think you can learn from the people that commented on your videos, just try to gather the information and see if it works for you and your dog. I mean, sometimes it is useful to hear that you are crap at what you do, BUT you have to also have a measure to compare it with. Like for example in gaming, if I want to test a performance, I do it with the people I know, and whose skill level I trust to be on par with what we do. There has to be a right level of difficulty - I mean there is a level of amateur enthusiast, and there is a level of a top trainer. You can't put the requirements too high for a simple trainer - and the advice has to be appropriate for the skill level.

[Lulu-amongst-the-blooms]

Originally Posted by elemire

I think it is too exaggerated conclusion. If you think you can learn from the people that commented on your videos, just try to gather the information and see if it works for you and your dog. I mean, sometimes it is useful to hear that you are crap at what you do, BUT you have to also have a measure to compare it with. Like for example in gaming, if I want to test a performance, I do it with the people I know, and whose skill level I trust to be on par with what we do. There has to be a right level of difficulty - I mean there is a level of amateur enthusiast, and there is a level of a top trainer. You can't put the requirements too high for a simple trainer - and the advice has to be appropriate for the skill level.

i think this is right, though don't really understand the analogy, sorry!, i know nothing about games or gaming.

When you trained to dance serena, did you probably had or new girls who had those days at the barre, when you thoguht,..i could be doung something else, or the days when your body didn't do as much as soon as you wanted...a wriggly weak ankle here or there or a ligament that made you worry...all that is stress...but the overall art the stressed dancer retains love and passion for.

I know that sometimes i get stressed,and my animals have 'stress' doing what we do, the ultimate thing is that over all they are happy, they work willingly and enthusiastically most of the tipme, and they offer trained behaviours unprompted in expectation of reward, and imo, in effort to communicate.

Stress in an exercise doesn't mean stressed over all, and tbh, you have better access to the information on that than good trainers seeing a video snap shot of her working with you.

Obviously, take their advice, streesing both of you to the point of comment needs a remedy, but don't get too diverted from seeking a solution.

Outside of training what do you and eluane do for leisure exercise? Mine love new places, they get stimulation from this in a wayu they just do not at the same old, same old walks. Also, i personally believe dog on dog time is very underated, and encourage a lot of socialisation on walks. Mine, even the thick one, know that dogs on leads or displaying negative body language are not up for playing, but their delight in meeting other well socialised dogs for mad, and sometimes quite rough but not dangerous, play is evident, and imo other dogs give them something their familiarity with each other cannot, and as a human i cannot replace.

[elemire]

I also think that sometimes the trainers can loose an objective view on behavior of an animal. I do not have a dog at the moment, but my parents do - they had a giant Schnauzer before and now have a standard one. Now in Lithuania dogs are still kept for guarding the property as much as they are for being pets, so some aggression is actually desired. When we went for a walk with the Schnauzer in a village, that usually was a cacophony of the dogs barking - one on one side of the fence, another on another, regardless of size, breed and training. You would think that is stressing and aggressive behavior, but the dogs actually had fun in their own canine way. Same for barking in the middle of the night if one dog starts barking somewhere - all village is barking, although half of them have no idea why.

[Stefanie]

Look at all the wonderful support you've gotten here Serena Thanks girls!

Hope all is well with your knee.

[SerenaSYH]

Thanks so much for the cheering up everyone I'm so lucky to have everyone's support, and I did find later that it was a misunderstanding on my part. But at face value I was looking at the wording of one of the experts when she said "often my timing was very poor", I was sending her off the wrong ways and my dog is stressed because she was tired....When all they were trying to say is that I needed help from a real instructor, but the fact is that financially because agility in the U.S. is so horribly expensive, we will not be able to afford a trainer for a very, very long time and definitely not with these medical bills..., and in past threads I have always said how much I needed help from fellow agility forumers to improve until I can get full-time work. I asked for a second by second countdown where I was going wrong at, (Vimeo has markers so you can write down where it was I went amiss or should stand at) but they wouldn't answer that either, so I thought they were just trying to tell me to stop the agility immediately until I found a real trainer, because I was that bad at the agility....It was just that one of the forumers unknowingly used words like bad, poor timing, the dog is confused, and I could only see the negative behind it instead of looking at the overall picture that she didn't really mean it in that light. Another friend had to explain that Andrea always rushes to the defense of a dog.

Here are the two videos which I was showing and what triggered the two experts' responses... I realize Stefanie may not be able to see the videos very well with her connection, but this is where we are at. These videos are working with a new concept (the box) and tyre issues.

http://vimeo.com/38194015

http://vimeo.com/37791659

Actually the thing is, Lulu and Stefanie, is that Eluane is the one who will not rest. I keep trying to put her behind the gate but she keeps pushing and pushing at the gate to be let out to do the agility and if I keep her behind she will not rest but keeps pacing and pacing, the obsessive border collie way. So when forumers see her "panting" I'm actually constantly trying to get her to rest. This is another misunderstanding which occurs with agility. In videos, you have to cut out parts of the video because Vimeo just can't hold all that video so only a fraction of the story gets told. Even when you look at our tyre issues, people don't get to see the great times with the tyre, because there I'm posting the problems instead of when things go smoothly and right. Because that is the point -- to show where and when I have problems.

Lulu, yes, definitely...Dancing always has its stresses but lots of joy in it too....Thanks for putting it in that light! And yes, Stefanie, I was thinking that if Eluane were stressed she would be a very slow dog too, and she is not slow for sure! Dogs that are truly stressed will not be fast, they will not have wagging tails or smiles on their faces and Eluane is always smiling. It's just that when I read other's comments in the back of my mind, so many self-doubts creep in. Am I deluded? is Eluane truly smiling, is my mind playing tricks on me? I get that way when I really am in a depressed roll, and I've got so many worries with the health too. That is the other thing- I skipped out on the tests I was supposed to take. I took a look at the list and it was HUGE! I had to drag myself all over the hospital, then to the lab, then to the hospital's financial center to find out exactly how much it would cost and YIKES it's $2271 just for labs and $500 per doctor's visit and I have another!!! follow-up doctor's appointment. Under special aid I have to pay 50% right away in order for the hospital to waive the other 50% for the labs or I have to pay the full amount but have the amount divided over a much longer extended period.... My brother is overseas at a medical conference but when he returns to NYC, I will get his thoughts on the lab tests that were ordered. The local rheumatologist thinks it's an autoimmune inflammatory condition. I also have to be tested for lupus since my Mom does have those antibodies as well. oh, what headaches and worries! But at least I can feel tons better with everyone's support... We'll keep on trying our hardest...!

Lulu, I'm going to bring out the clicker pretty soon. There are some new moves I'm trying to get Eluane to do, and I'm thinking the clicker may really be needed in this case! Here is the situation. Eluane does this really cute play bow which I'm going to call plie. But I want her to differentiate between the play bow versus the lying down because she gets mixed up between the two because I don't know yet how to let her see the difference. As soon as I say good plié when she has gotten into that position on her own while tuggying sometimes she will go into a full lie down position which we call "te couche" instead of maintaining the plié.

Lulu, in our neighborhood, dogs are very poorly socialized. Eluane is extremely shy and will run and hide behind the human, lol! this used to not be the case. When she was a puppy, she had so many puppy friends but once I moved to a private home, she started not to like other dogs-- unless it's a very handsome male black and white B.C. that she encounters at an agility trial. Then she will flirt and flirt and flirt! But if a border collie isn't a black & white male she'll ignore it usually. She also only likes male Golden Retrievers for some weird reason, lol! She does not like oafy dogs who pounce and slobber all over her like my neighbor's labrador.... Unfortunately the 3 closest dogs are very aggressive, and no way!!! would I ever! let Eluane get near those dogs, and I think those dogs and even my own brother's dog are the reasons why Eluane has long forgotten how to want to socialize. My brother's dog was poorly socialized and would often turn on poor Eluane.

Anyway, lots of hugs to everyone and thanks for all the support!

[SerenaSYH]

Happy Easter again, lol! Folks I'm actually taking advantage of the holiday to catch up with everyone's posts, lol! I gotta strike while the iron is hot, haha! and while my health is still on neutral.... My legs joints are not as alarmingly pink today and I'm starting to take vitamins too, so I'm feeling very positive and on a good roll, hurray! Stefanie I forgot to tell you that for the longest time my brother's meds were very, very effective; but the doctors all know that this is only a surface treatment. The underlying issues still have to be dealt with and the root cause found....NYC is too far away a couple thousand miles away so I have to do things here locally for awhile. My brother constantly travels and was overseas for 14 days and I wanted to wait until things were settled after he returned. With auto-immune systems going haywire, it's a day-by-day situation. Some days better than others.... Yesterday and Day before yesterday were not good....Easter things look much better again, lol!

Anyway, here are the catchup photo of my insanity, haha!

Here is Eluane's and the young snowfountain cherry tree...




Oh, before I forget, this is the 2nd snow that came to Kansas. I know sometimes it's hard for gardeners to love snow, but I really take joy in the change of seasons and seeing the magical white stuff, lol! Plus snow really hides how ugly and lumpy and lopsided my garden is, haha! With snow everything looks beautiful, loll! The first time really couldn't be called snow because it fell around 3:00 a.m. and vanished in the morning as soon as the sun rose. The second time is this... it's actually very shallow snow, only about 1/4" to 1" max. and it vanished after 4 hours of daylight...



Stefanie, Lulu, Mary (hopes she revisits us soon) lol! there is hope about James, my rose-hating boyfriend, lol! For the first time in a couple of years he gave me roses for Valentine's Day! Ever since I started growing roses, he stopped giving me roses and has only frowned and muttered under his breath about torching my "abominations" and sowing salt in the soil and "I refuse to feed your addictions" or "oh, yeah, those foul things,"lol! So you can imagine how happy I am to get roses again for Valentine's


Also while browsing through and organizing photos I noticed I failed to put up my last roses of the season. I also have to go back and clean up previous threads (erase some of the less cool blooms) lol! So in the meantime here as some of the last roses that I kind of liked. The last one was again the Lincolns - November 17th....Really huge globular blooms....

Viking Queen:


Lincoln Hybrid Tea:




Cornelia


Climbing America

[Stefanie]

Oh Serena,

The cherry tree looks absolutely gorgeous! And what lovely picture of you and James. You make such a handsome couple I would not dare posting a close up of Armin and me. His long term health condition took its toll but when Maren saw some pictures of him when her father was much younger even she had to admit that he was ‘dishy’

The cherry tree will look divine in your garden. We too had one in Germany when I grew up. The bees flocked to it in spring but I can’t remember if it bore fruit or not. However it became useful in winter to hang our bird feeders in and the cats loved it as a scratch post….

Poor Eluane seems go get cold paws in the snow My aunt send me Easter wishes from Munich and a photo of her garden yesterday morning – covered in a thick layer of snow just as yours!

I pray that your knees will come right it is correct that so many medications are only there to address the surface problem meanwhile one really needs to get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately western medicine is not always that great at it. Cortisone is their wonder drug but it is a real bugger with terrible long term effects

Your roses look lovely too. I must really try to track down a ‘Viking Queen” I love her bloom! If you ever come across a bare root one will you please think of me?

We’re looking forward to see some more pictures of your roses and garden over the next few month

[Flordel]

Serena, you got a great looking tree! It was worth the struggle to fit it into your car!
I don't know too much about your condition, but I hope that the treatment that you will follow will have positive results. Try to be optimistic! Lots of hugs...