As Told by Athena: Busy Ladies

Hi Guys!  Athena here.  You're probably wondering where this little brindle butt has been because she has totally been slacking on her blogging duties lately (ok....let's be honest, it's been like a month)!  Well friends, I've been a busy lady and so has my mom.

Mom and I take a second out of our busy schedules to pose for a photo last weekend

Mom comes home every night and says that life is crazy in the garden with her 31 gardeners.  I don't get how gardening could be so difficult, but apparently it's hard when the gardeners are only 5 years old...and when there are 31 of them.  Mom says she's a bad blogger because she promised one blog post a week, but she didn't even succeed at that.  She hopes that you all understand that gardening has taken over her life for the time being.

My mom's busyness means that my social life has soared through the roof!  That's right.  I get to go to my favorite doggie daycare THREE days a week now!  Mom says this makes for one super duper tired Bean every night, but it also makes for lots of cute picture in my mom's inbox.

I'm also still flyballin' regularly at practice and I recently raced in two tournaments.  One of the tournaments was held at a big ole' doggie event where there were agility demos and a lure course set up.  Mom paid $3 for me to give lure coursing a try, but she wasn't sure if I'd be interested in chasing a silly little plastic bag around.  Of course, this Bean thought that lure coursing was the most fun thing in the whole wide world!  After my turn was over I kept trying to pull my mom back to the course for another run, so she gave in and paid another $3 to let me do it again.  Mom says she sees lure coursing in my future.

Flyball is still my most favorite extra curricular activity and I'm getting pretty good at it with all of this practice that I do every week.  I'm even now known as a FDCh-S which stands for "Flyball Dog Champion Silver" because I've won over 1,000 points at tournaments!

So yeah, that's a little update on the life of the Bean.  I really miss all of my doggie friends out there and I'm so sorry that my mom has let gardening take over her life.  As you can see though, I don't mind one bit because it means that I get to play with my doggie friends more often!

What's up with you guys?

Unexcused Absence

Ok, I'm just going to admit it.  School supplies, picture books, and garage sales have taken over my life and therefore I haven't had time to blog (hence the lack of posts in over a week).  Many of you already know from Facebook, but I am the lucky recipient of a brand new job!  Come September I will be teaching Kindergarten!  This will be a bit of a change from my crazy life as a substitute teacher, but it will be a much welcomed change.  Not only will I be tying lots of shoes and offering tissues by the handful, but I will probably also be fairly sporadic in my blogging.  But don't you worry, Athena will be just as spoiled as ever AND I plan to tell lots of Athena stories to the class.

Over the weekend I took a break from school supply shopping and we attended an especially fun event with our flyball team.  We all dressed up in our best Flying Underdogs attire and marched in the Freemont Street parade with one of our favorite local pet stores, Green Dog Pet Supply.

Athena practiced her manners in front of dogs, kids, horses, and lots, and lots of people.  It was great preparation for her Canine Good Citizen test which has finally been scheduled for this coming Saturday the 10th (fingers crossed that she passes)!

There were so many highlights to our fun outing, one of which was all of the time we got to spend with this totally adorable puppy (she will soon be up for adoption through MCAS):

Puppy Frankie, Athena, and their friends Roo and Henry all had a blast together and even got to share some doggie ice cream treats after the parade.

Henry even won 3rd place in the dog costume contest!

Before we started flyball, Athena's only friends were her daycare buddies.  Now she has lots of flyball friends to hang out with!

Do you live in the Portland area and want to give flyball a try?  We'd LOVE to meet you and your dog and I'm sure Athena would be up for showing you her flyball skills.  Check out our flyball team, the Flying Underdogs, for info on starting a flyball class.

Gotcha!

Boy, how time flies!  It's crazy to think that it has already been one year since we adopted Athena from the shelter.  Last week I got a bit sentimental thinking about where we were at this time last year and how far Athena has come since then.

Over the weekend we celebrated Athena's "Gotcha Day" with a one-day flyball tournament in Albany and a mini-pawty.  The flyball tournament was GREAT and Athena had some great successes.  There was one little incident where another dog ran into Athena's lane and started chasing her in the ring during a race, but Athena handled herself well and ran right back to me.  She was in a bit of shock over the incident, but I was SO proud of her for showing everyone what a good girl she is.

In my head I had grand plans for Athena's "pawty" filled with a homemade dog cake, party guests, and lots of gifts for her actual Gotcha Day on Sunday.  However, with my recent busyness (blame it on me landing a teaching job this week!), the party wasn't as lavish as I had anticipated.

Of course, Athena didn't notice the lack of decorations and presents.  She was in her glory just playing ball and eating a homemade Frosty Paw that I dug out from the freezer.  Even though the party wasn't much of a pawty to brag about, I think it was perfect for Athena.  She spent the entire day with her humans doing Athena things and getting lots of love.  What more could a girl ask for on her first Gotcha Day?

Happy Gotcha Day Little Bean!  Here's to another great year filled with love, treats, smiles, and balls!

Flyball Dog Excellent

Please excuse our absence on Friday as well as the lack of Facebook postings over the weekend.  I promise we have a good excuse for it!

Our lack of posting was all caused by our big busy weekend at the Muddypaws flyball tournament in Salem, Oregon!  On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we made the drive down to Salem to our very first flyball tournament.

On Friday night we attended green dog racing which is intended for dogs new to the sport.  There's no judging or real time keeping and you're allowed to use props.  Athena ran singles and doubles and did fairly well in the new environment.  However, she continued to inconsistently bring her ball back to me, so we didn't have much hope for her to be in the actual tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

Athena was able to warm-up with a team on Saturday to get the feel for the ring, noise, and overall chaos of flyball.  She did great with the distraction overload and stayed totally focused on me and her ball.  She was still dropping the ball though right after retrieving it from the box, and we didn't want to chance putting her in an actual race because of it.

Then we decided to just give it a try with an orange ChuckIt ball instead of the normal tennis ball.  Well, you all know how obsessed Athena is with ChuckIt balls!  Once she found out that ChuckIt balls were involved, she never again dropped the ball early.  This sealed the deal and Athena debuted in the official flyball ring on Saturday afternoon racing with her team Back That Pass Up!

Above is a video of Athena racing with her team (she's the fourth dog in the lineup).  Athena managed to earn two flyball titles.  You may now refer to her as:

Athena, FD, FDX

The FD stands for Flyball Dog which is earned with 20 points and the FDX stands for Flyball Dog Excellent which is earned with 100 points.  Athena's teammate Henry who also debuted this weekend earned himself a couple of titles as well!

I am SO proud of Athena for having such a successful first flyball tournament.  Sometimes she can be a bit spacey at practice (running around the hurdles instead of jumping over them, not bringing the ball back, running into other dogs, etc.), so I wasn't quite sure how she would react to the crazy flyball environment.  She actually acted like a fairly trained dog and managed to jump over all of the hurdles almost every time she ran a race (there was one flub up when she went around them after a bad box turn).  As far as being off-leash in the presence of so many other dogs in the ring, Athena kept her cool and didn't do any of her usual attempts at socializing.

In other news, we also won three raffle baskets at the tournament filled with tons of doggie loot!

What fun activities did you do with your dog this weekend?

What's Up With Athena?

Ok, so we've been a little MIA the past few days here on the blog besides some random pictures posted on Facebook of Athena's daycare shenanigans and our warm Portland weather.  Sorry about that!  Life seems to just be busier and this heat doesn't help my motivation to write.  I decided that today should just be a catch up day to let everyone know what Athena's been up to.

1.  Who's a Canine Good Citizen?

Not Athena.  Nope, we haven't yet tested for CGC.  As many of you know, over the past couple of month's Athena has been enrolled in a CGC prep class and has been working hard to master the ten test items.  The five-session prep class was Athena's best training class by far.  Usually Athena is the class clown, always trying to rile up the other dogs and not pay attention to her parents.  However, during CGC prep, Athena was an absolute star student and our trainer used her for all of the test demonstrations.  We have REALLY been looking forward to testing Athena for CGC because we feel that she's ready now more than ever.  We were suppose to test on the last day of class which was suppose to be on June 16th.  But, June 16th has come and gone and Athena is still just a CGC in training.  Our trainer decided to postpone the test until late July or August to give the other class participants more time to practice before testing.  At this point, Athena is probably the only one ready to test from her class (I'm not saying that's she's necessarily ready to pass!) and so we will wait until our trainer schedules the test in the next month or two.

Getting yummy treats in CGC class!

2.  Our first flyball tournament is in 10 days!

I just looked at my calendar and had a mini panic attack when I saw that our first flyball tournament is in only 10 days!  We've been hard at work practicing to get Athena ready to run as a green dog (she won't actually be in he tournament, she'll just be with the team practicing as a dog in training).  Athena has had some ups and downs in flyball over the past few weeks and the ups definitely make me so excited for our first tournament, but the downs (not bringing her ball back over all jumps, running around hurdles, putting pressure on other dogs, acting like we've never practiced before...) totally frighten me.  Alas, I'm sure that our first tournament will be quite the experience and we'll have plenty of stories to share when we're back.

Flyball practicer!

3.  Athena's belly bumps are a mystery...

It's been a few weeks since we shared about Athena's most recent trip to the vet to get her bumps and scabs checked out.  She went on two weeks of antibiotics and Benadryl and things cleared up pretty well.  However, some bumps and scabs were not completely gone and a couple of new bumps appeared, so we called up the vet and Athena is now on a second round of antibiotics.  We also took her off Benadryl for the time being and put her on a steroid to help with the itching.  It's been a little over a week since the second dose of antibiotics and steroids, and things were REALLY starting to clear up until she developed a couple of new belly bumps the other day.  We have an inkling that the grass is triggering the tummy bumps, but we're not 100% sure.  Our vet has suggested seeing a dog dermatologist if we can't get things under control.

Thean loves to eat grass...

4.  We're SO hot!

Us Portlanders are milld weather people.  We look forward to the summer for 70 and 80 degree weather.  Personally, when the temperature starts to creep past 80, I am miserable.  This past week we've been having temperatures in the upper 90's (like 98!) and it has been pretty awful.  Seeing as this hot weather is rare, the majority of people here in Portland don't have air conditioning in their homes so it gets REAL hot.  It's tough to take Athena out during the day because the pavement is just too hot for her paw pads, and the sun is too bright at the park.  She doesn't seem to mind too much that she's been lacking in the exercise department though.  The mix of steroids and hot weather makes for an extra tired Bean!

This girl is jumping for joy because it's starting to cool down!

5.  Athena is a midnight muncher

On Friday night Athena did a little something that she's never done before.  She crept out of the bedroom and into the living room while we were asleep and found a bag full of dog treats and food samples.  When we woke up in the morning, we noticed four treat bags and two food samples had been ripped open and demolished.  Athena also looked like she put on a good five pounds over night.  Our little skinny Bean was a BIG fatty all of Saturday with bloat.  I of course freaked out and Googled all of the signs and symptoms of dog bloat.  Luckily Athena didn't exhibit much besides being a big lug all day. Nine poops later, Athena was back to her normal self and ready for Sunday!

I took this picture on the day of Athena's bloat.  Can you tell how bloated she is?

Well, that's about all of the major updates I have for you.  Athena wishes everyone a very happy 4th of July and hopes that you will cross your fingers that she's not too afraid of the big booms (AKA fireworks)!

Homemade Grain-Free and Egg-Free Flyball Speed Boost Bones

In preparation for the shelter's dog sports demo day over the weekend, our flyball team, the Flying Underdogs, decided to jazz up our booth at the event with fancy team flyers and some homemade dog treats and recipe cards.  I was put in charge of baking the treats, so I knew that I'd need a yummy recipe that was grain-free to accommodate all of the doggies who would be visiting our booth.

Our table at the sports demo day

Grain-free homemade treat recipes are hard to come by online.  I scoured Pinterest for grain-free treat recipes that had limited ingredients and that also didn't contain egg, since many dogs are also allergic to eggs (we still don't know if that's one of Athena's triggers, so we avoid it).  I finally found an awesome recipe here, but it called for an egg, so I did some further research on dog-friendly egg substitutes.  Just for your reference if you ever want to substitute egg in homemade dog treats:

one egg = 1 T ground flaxseed + 3 T water

Bean waiting to try a speed boost bone!

This egg substitution sounded PERFECT to me since flaxseed is not a grain and has many health benefits for dogs.  As far as the grain-free part of this treat recipe, garbanzo bean flour is called for instead of wheat flour.  Athena has had treats made with garbanzo bean flour (like her favorite STAM treats), so I knew that this recipe would be good for her sensitive tummy!  Garbanzo bean flour is also very high in protein, so these treats were perfect to bring along for a long hard working day of flyball!

Here's the recipe:

The recipe cards that we handed out at the sports demo

Here are some photos of the treat-making process:

4 thick slices are sizzling away!

Bean always hangs out in the kitchen when there's bacon cooking

I rolled out the dough on floured parchment paper just so there wouldn't be any sticking

Look at those big chunks of bacon in there!  YUM!

Rolling out the dough in preparation to cut with my cookie cutter

Straight out of the oven!

Not only are these treats yummy, they are pretty too!

Of course, Athena has to perform a solid "leave-it" in order to enjoy her treat

I was so impressed with this treat recipe (I actually made 3 batches for the demo) and the dough turned out great every time even with the garbanzo bean flour and egg substitute.  Just an FYI, I poured the bacon fat into my dough mixture while it was still hot (I let it cool off of the burner for about five minutes before pouring it into the mixture) which helped to melt the shredded cheddar and keep the dough really smooth instead of lumpy.  One batch of dough yielded an entire cookie sheet full of bones.  However, because these bones are homemade and have fresh ingredients, they do need to be stored in the refrigerator.  Athena doesn't mind though, she goes bonkers for these treats!  Every time I get them out of the fridge she stalks me around the house, jumps on me (which is rare) and even gave me a woof!  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that at least four humans have tried these treats since I made them and everyone agrees that they are actually pretty tasty.  They would make great crackers to pair with some cheese!

Have you ever attempted a homemade grain-free treat recipe?

Agility, Rally, Weight Pull, Nosework, Freestyle, and Flyball - Oh My!

Early Sunday morning we drove back from the beach and straight to the shelter where we adopted Athena from.  As much as Athena would have loved to romp in the sand some more, there was no way that we were missing the shelter's sports demo day!  Not only did we have the chance to try out agility, rally, weight pull, nosework, freestyle, and clicker training, but Athena was also a part of the flyball demo with our team the Flying Underdogs.

Amidst the rain, dogs and their owners flocked to the shelter to try their hand at all of sports.  We were especially excited to participate in the sport's demo day because it was held at the shelter where Athena was adopted from.  It was an extra special day for us because we met so many shelter volunteers who remembered Athena and were able to see how far she has come in the last year.  Although Athena didn't get to demo too many of her flyball skills, she was able to try out a variety of other dog sports that we've always been curious about like...

Rally is on our list of sports that we'd like to try out this year.  Well, we can now officially mark it off of our list because Athena gave it a go on Sunday!  After learning how to walk the course, Athena and I gave it a try and she did surprisingly well.  She was able to heel at my side and stop at each cone for directions which included sits, downs, turns, and stays.

After rally, we had the chance to try out...

Ohhhh, agility!  One of the sports that I've always lusted over and never thought that Athena would excel at due to her fear of pretty much everything.  Although agility is also on our list of sports to try out in 2013, we have always thought that Athena might be too nervous to attempt some of the equipment.  Well, at the sport's demo day we were able to try it out and guess what?  Athena was GREAT!  She even went through the tunnel multiple times; something we never thought that she would step foot in.  Because the agility trial went so well, we are now seriously considering starting a foundations class in the very near future!

Then we tried out...

When we approached the weight pull booth, I was sure that Athena was not going to be very happy about trying on the big bulky weight pull harness.  However, once she was fitted with the harness, she walked right by my side with only a few glances back to see what was hanging off of her bum.  Once some wight was added to the back of the harness, Athena went to work pulling!

During the demo we also tried out canine freestyle (doggie dancing!) which unfortunately we didn't get pictures of, but Athena thought we were totally bonkers when the music turned on and we started giving her commands.  We learned that Athena has some work to do if she ever wants to be a professional dancer!  There was also a clicker training booth where Athena started working on a 'hold' command using a clicker.  The demo also features nosework, but seeing as we've already done two nosework demos in the past, we skipped the line and spent more time at the other demos.

Of course the main attraction for us at the demo day was flyball!  Tons of dogs and their handlers signed up to give flyball a try and many of them had great potential.  I also baked special grain-free treats to hand out at our booth and I can't wait to share the recipe with you tomorrow!

Athena spent most of her flyball demo time waiting in her crate as it rained!

Homemade Flyball Speed Boost Bones!  A.K.A. Grain-Free Bacon Treats

Overall, the sport's demo day at Clackamas County Dog Services was a total blast!  Our list of activities that we want to enroll Athena in is getting quite long and I'm thinking that not all of them will even fit into 2013.  But, we do know that sports will definitely be a part of Athena's life and training for years to come because she has shown us that she's quite the athlete.

Have you ever tried a dog sport with your dog?