Wet wet wet. Wet.

What I look like in the morning when I'm not walking dogs or going to work on time because of the wet.

What some of the dogs do when they're not going to work or for a walk on time.

This dog got turned into a lamp.

Timmy is a happy dog this week. His picture isn't here because he's outside. Because one of his favorite things to do, besides run at full speed up our driveway and not bash himself into anything, is stand outside in the pouring rain. I don't chalk that one up to dementia, because he has always liked standing outside and getting wet. Just hanging out, sort of meander around, and get really, really wet. The dementia part though, means that he scratches on the door to get let back in, which involves the actual work on my side of drying off his mounds of fur, and then a few minutes later he wants to go out and repeat the whole process because he may have just forgotten he was just out there. If the pouring rain is at 5am, he's there. In the door, out the door, repeat, repeat.

Rain means a lot of stress at work because people want to know can they ride, can they not ride, and it's just always a crapshoot of about 30 variables of which ring if any we can use. And that's with our awesome and well draining footing, it's never a no brainer of life without a covered arena. I lose money in the rain. I have a lot of customers that are sort of, um, fair weather riders. So they're out. The regulars come, and I still get the horses out for the ones that have horses in training, but those pay by the lesson beginner types that don't want to still come out and learn horsemanship skills, or lesson people from long drives away, they kill me this time of year. So more work for less money! I always am smart about the career paths I take.

Dirt Night also became Mud Bowl. Ruby had to stay in the car, something is wrong with her foot. Did it cause slow weave poles on Sunday? I have no idea. I give up. She has an infected foot though that I didn't notice until yesterday morning when she was lame on it. Otterpop and Hobbes were fast and fun and barking and muddy. Thanks Rob for driving all the way back down to Salinas to get Hobbes! He has to go to the dog show on Saturday so he needed to practice. Or I guess just get in shape. Like Hobbes needs to practice anything. We don't get to go. Rob gets to run his own dog all by himself and not have to share him with his stalker. Although had I been a weather genie and could predict what work days would be a total washout, I should have entered and bagged a work day. But then the poor horses would have had to sit all day and I would have felt really, really bad. It's a good show because it's USDAA but all the Masters is Sat. and Starters and Advanced on Sunday. So you only have to go 1 day and get all your runs. But it's the wrong day for my lifestyle.

I worked with my beginner class on some Susan Garrett focus and drive to the jump exersizes during Mud Bowl. I tried to be just like Susan Garrett on her DVD. I used a Canadian accent and everything. I couldn't bring a demonstration dog out though because my ringer dog was lame and Otterpop, she's not so good at this one because it requires a smashing startline stay and since I've started working on this little exersize with them all for the good of Gustavo, I learned she just blows it part of the time from frisbee insanity. Oops. Never really taught her the control freak stay. Gustavo, he's the one learning this but I want to look like a rockstar Susan Garrett if I demonstrate to beginners so they experience shock and awe at my smashing training skills and Gustavo is still at stage one since he has to repeat stuff 600 times til he gets it. Ruby is the only one that can make me look good. And it's all about me right? Uh, ego flaw? I'm already going to hell for not singing to help the dogs but holding a candle for dogs instead of Martin Luther King and Heath Ledger.