Dog training and Poodles with attitude...

Well, dog training on Saturday morning proved to be interesting...and offered more setbacks than solutions.
Rosa proved to happily play with puppies that were around her size - and not fluffy, however, did appear to be growly towards fluffy things that yapped at her. One in particular, was a toy poodle called Mia.
Mia just yapped incessantly and got in Rosa's face.
Time came when we all had to pat each other's dogs and introduce them to each other. Mia yapped in Rosa's face and Rosa snarled and lunged.
Then some wise decision was made by the instructors that now as a good time to go to the offleash area. I kept saying, Rosa is going to eat Mia. Seemed to fall on deaf ears. What would I know? They are the 'experts' after all.
Anyhow, all dogs were off leash and happily introducing themselves. Rosa made the mistake of introducing herself to an onleash dog who was being re-socialised. All was fine, then she must have pushed the boundaries of his comfort and he lunged/barked/growled towards her. Being a staffy, she won't back down from a fight - she didn't do anything, just lots of awful noise and snarly looks. We pulled her away, and then Mia got in her face. She pinned Mia down by the throat. Hmmmm. No damage. Only to Rosa - who was bleeding from the chin.
The trainer said, Oh, she's just got her in the classic trying to get her submissive pose. By this stage I was feeling very uncomfortable. Then they said, okay everyone off leash again - Mia the poodle was still in her Mum's arms. Rosa hopped up and grabbed Mia down and had her pinned again. Obviously hadn't felt that she had finished making that thing submissive. A toy poodle is no match for a staffy though.
The trainers then had the gall to say, oh , this has never happened before.
Now I have to try and determine what it is about fluffy yappy things that causes her to go nasty, and try and work through that....
I spoke to my dog trainer last night and told her, and she said that she couldn't believe the stupidity of letting first time mature dogs off leash....
doesn't help my issue now though... especially with our puppy coming in two weeks.

..and back to blonde

Well, a trip to the hairdresser last night resulted in me returning to blonde after being brunette for several months. It's perhaps a little 'too' blonde, but ... what the heck. Change is as good as a holiday - and my hair is sooooo short that it'll be gone in a couple of weeks!!
Dinner last night didn't end up being a stir fry... I had dear husband mince up the chicken breasts with the good ole' meat cleaver, and I made up the chilli chicken recipe from Survival of the Fittest - it's basically just chicken breast mince stir fried in the wok with garlic, ginger, then you add in some sweet chilli sauce and fish sauce, and I usually add in a dash of lime as well.
Serve 'san choy bau' style in lettuce leaves and you have a pretty good meal! I did have a dark chocolate lindt ball with my green tea after though, and a glass of red wine...
tssk tssk.

Went down the beach with the little girl again this morning, she's so funny. Really gets fixated on birds and wants to hunt them down. Should be interesting when I get her up to the horse property and see how she goes with all the wild ducks in the dam.... could be funny...or disastrous.

This weekend is set to be another busy one - off to dog training tomorrow morning, hopefully start horse back in work - lungeing only - until he builds up some muscle, take temps to ensure no flu symptoms. Then maybe more house painting..

Planning on getting back to kickboxing next week....I am sure I will die...

Almost a full workout this morning!

Aaah, things are looking up - went for the poochy walk this morning, then recommenced week 5 of Afterburn - got about 2/3 of the workout done in between the throwing of the ball.
Had to forego my Thursday morning beach workout session with my workout partner though - wasn't sure that my lungs would work enough to run that much - and still trying to get rid of this cough.
Thank god for Codral with pseudoephedrine..

Food today is :
1: 2 cottage cheese pancakes with sugar free maple syrup, nat peanut butter and blueberries
2: Musashi SLM bar - just discovered these whilst in Sydney on my course - and haven't made any of my Precision Nutrition 'poo' bars for a while so these had to suffice!! Will have to make some more of those tonight though.
3: Chicken breast with greek salad
4: Greek yoghurt with blueberries and handful raw nuts
5: Stir fry chicken and veges

Lots of water & 2 cups of green tea.

The Road to Recovery...

Well, I managed to sleep the majority of the night last night - woke up about midnight coughing again and started to stress out as I thought it was going to be yet another night like the last...but then the 2nd nighttime Codral kicked in and stopped me. I didn't wake up until the alarm went off just before 6am... bliss.
My lungs and abs are so sore from all the coughing though! What a workout.

Took the girl down to the beach for a walk this morning, and as we got down to the beach I spotted a loose dog walking with his owner in the distance - next thing I knew he was bolting towards us - I thought, oh well, this will be an interesting test. She just stood there watching, whilst i just said, good girl (feeble..I know)... then they happily said hello to each other - luckily he was a german shorthaired pointer - all wagging tail and not much going on up top... so it was a good experience for her, so she got a nice treat for being so good.
Onwards and upwards.
She seriously loves the beach though.
My husband calls her piglet, because she looks and sounds like one (cute). I think she looks more like Yoda...
But we are loving having a dog that sleeps through thunder and fireworks... our house still bears the scars of Suki's scratching at doors. I guess we can hopefully fix those now - unless Keith comes with phobias...hopefully not.
Off to see pony tonight - we are now in a 10km radius of EI - which isn't good. This thing has just spread like wildfire, and doesn't show any real signs of abating as yet. So far my horse's temp has remained normal, no spikes, so fingers crossed we may be okay..but I somehow doubt it.

Lurgy No. 5

Okay, I am really over all of this illness that I have so far succumbed to this 'season'. I spent all night last night attempting to cough my lungs up (or whatever's left of them now after all these flu and cold viruses).

Still, having time to contemplate life and the universe it has given me much needed time to reflect on having completely lost focus with where I was headed business wise prior to going on holiday - which then ended up in a whirlwind of emotion following the loss of Suki, horse injury no. 5, etc..
So, now that we have young Rosa (or Tamsin Starburst as I prefer to call her) getting settled in, she's going to be attempting agility training come next Monday night - that should be fun - wonder who'll have more fun? me or her?!And then in a couple of weeks we'll have the young rambunctious Ridgeback, Keith coming along - hopefully they will get on okay - it's time to be able to refocus a little back on moi. So, as soon as my lurgy has finished I need to get back into my workouts which have been too easy in the past two weeks - not enough focus on kickboxing or weights, then I can call a couple of gyms to see where / when I can complete my 20 hours practical component.
Oh...when I was up with my horse the other day, one of the other ladies who has a horse on agistment has just signed up for 10 weeks with the Commando....http://www.commandosteve.com/ - $900 . I asked if she'd watched the Biggest Loser and she said No... I just said I hope you enjoy punishment..! I shall report her progress.

Full on day!

Well, it was up at 4.45am this morning to take little pooch for walk - had to be in Sydney for an 8.15am start at a two day presentation skills workshop.
Definitely not for the fainthearted this workshop, but excellent to get tools to enable you to feel a lot more confident about presenting in front of groups.
One of the things I would like to do when building my PT business would be to give talks to groups of business women at networking functions - hence my enthusiasm to do this course... Generally I would prefer to have teeth pulled then present in front of a group. But I am not alone!
Said Pooch decided that the 800g lump of chicken breast that was defrosting on the bench was far too tempting to just leave be...
She is now sleeping off her excesses ;-)
You just have to laugh and hope that they don't eat far too much for their poor little stomachs!!! Yes, I am totally in love with this little girl.

It's almost like the before & after shots...

Someone had her first experience of the beach this morning. She bristled at the sight of a charred piece of wood as she wasn't quite sure what it was - but she figured she better get her hackles up and stay well clear just in case... until I walked over to it and patted it, then she realised it was okay.

The sand was fun - but the water was scary!

Here she is enjoying the sun - the heater's not on, just holding her up.

It's Monday and I'm exhausted....

Well, I think we packed as much as we possibly could into our weekend. First up was a night with friends on Friday night, and we stayed overnight and headed out from there to go and visit young Keith, who is now 4 weeks old and mobile, gorgeous and growing rapidly.

Then we went over to Staffy Rescue and met and picked up Rosa, our new addition to the family.

She had baptism by fire in relation to meeting her 'extended family' ie, our friends who all came over at various times of the weekend to meet her. Some of our close friends decided to bring her a gift of a squeaky Pumba toy. Unfortunately, they forgot it is their daughter's 1st birthday in a week's time... revenge is sweet. She might become 'little drummer girl' }-) - but I digress.

Rosa was described as being an outdoor dog who only came indoors if/when invited... the way she reacts to the indoors you may be forgiven they got that all round the wrong way! Because our friends stayed on the Saturday night, Rosa got to sleep in her basket next to my bed...however, she kept trying to sneak up on the bed during the night (which is a no-no for my husband!!), so we kept telling her to get in her basket.. which she did, and she remained there for a few hours, then tried again! It's hard to be stern when you're giggling because you have this cute staffy snuffling you during the night. Not to mention her snoring. At one stage i thought it was my husband and was thinking about poking him in the ribs, then I realised it was her!!!

Then come Sunday we had more visitors to see Rosa - and last night we attempted to move Rosa's basket to the laundry, so we had more nocturnal visits during the night. But... when I got up she was in her basket, and stayed there until I popped my head in and said hello. Then it was all waggy tails and snufflings.

This morning I took her out for a walk, then we played chasey in the backyard - then I tried to do some of my workout in between more chase the ball.

I have four weeks to get Rosa settled in and some obedience training and socialisation training before we introduce Keith the gorgeous ridgeback puppy to her. (Blame my husband on the Keith thing...) Hopefully it will go well and she won't attempt to eat him....

Myer in Wollongong show a complete lack of wisdom....

Ha! Well, I just went in to Wollongong at lunchtime, thought I'd pop in to the perfume counter at Myer to see if I could try some new perfume. I've been using the same perfume, Fragile by Jean Paul Gaultier for a couple of years now and thought I'd like to 'trial' some others with a view to purchasing my new perfume.
Well, if you want to do that in Myer Wollongong, it's pretty difficult unless you know exactly what perfumes you want to try. Why? They are all behind the counter, so you have to ask the assistant to try each one. How goddamn ridiculous.
Buying perfume is an experience. You have to experience the smells before you know what you want to actually put on your skin - especially when such a huge proportion of them I just don't like! Anyhow, I expressed my indignation and said I'd go elsewhere.
At least in David Jones, you can try what you like at your own leisure. So I purchased my new perfume, Chance by Chanel. Yummo!

Workouts and stuff..

This morning went down to the beach where it just happened to be howling a gale! The beach was littered with a mixture of blue bottles (North Easterly!) and cuttlefish. One that had washed up honestly looked like a hand - until you got a bit closer and realised what it was. Eeuw.

Anyway, we got through our jog and sprint sessions - just in a very wind blown way.

My legs were really fatigued throughout though - probably due to the gruelling sessions I had the previous two days - the workouts in weeks 5-8 are fairly heavy on the legs! Squat jumps with a barbell are not for the faint of heart at all. Last night I also did a kickboxing class, which was equally punishing, just in a different way.

Two more sleeps until we get our staffy. Then the house will feel like a home again. Yes, I'm excited.

What a weekend.

Well, since we are picking up our new addition to the family on Saturday, we had to work double time to get our new fencing & gates built....
I spent Saturday applying timber decking oil to the timber slats, and painting the metal posts (back breaking stuff). It will look fabulous, but is only about half way finished after all that time.

I also decided that I best give the dog kennel (it looks like a mini house complete with bullnosed verandah) a spring clean also - since it hadn't really seen any doggy activity for quite some time - the dogs had moved to sleeping indoors due to having old dog privileges.
What a dusty/cobwebby job that was!! eeeuwww. I had to keep emerging to breathe & sneeze.
Still, all better and cleaned out in readiness for the new children when they eventually want to use it. Just need to go out and buy some new large cushions to fill it with and then it will be snuffle heaven again.

The horse's leg is looking decidedly good and healing nicely... I have a feeling his retirement may not happen just yet ...but let's not speak too soon. Still no flu emerging around our properties. Although there has been an outbreak in Picton, about a 15 minute drive away, so we'll see if the wind carries it over our way or not. Fingers crossed it doesn't. Someone at work foolishly asked me what the big deal was - I said, you've seen the size of a horse's nose haven't you? Can you imagine the size of the snot globs? That stopped 'em! Hehe.

Since my c/v fitness has suffered a little I decided that a good beach workout session was in order this morning. It's lovely having the sun starting to rise at 6ish again - so much more pleasant than darkness! So, I did a light walk, then jog warmup, then just did about 12 x 60 m sprints, and did a longer fast run. Tonight I should be able to go to kickboxing for the first time in a week - can't wait!!

I will start my week 5 Afterburn workout tomorrow morning.
I think when our girl arrives next week will see me heading down the beach with her for my workouts, and I'll just have to reshuffle the Afterburn workouts in amongst those somehow.

another day..another dog...

Yes, I realise I had said..no more searching...but again. I found my fingers scrolling to the staffyrescue site.. Just for a look..HONEST..

And then I found her.

Rosa. A beautiful 18 month old staffy girl who sadly had to be surrendered by her family due to changes in circumstances.

She will be coming home to live with us on 8 September and I can't wait to get her.

Back to the beach again!!

Well, after being locked away in meeting rooms for three days I was going a bit stir crazy... and literally feeling overly energetic (which is really unusual for me at the end of a long one day meeting!) which just happened to go overtime and mean I missed kickboxing class..
God forbid.
Husband went into overdrive to put my punching bag up in the garage for me because I was desperate to punch and kick something... hehe. Oh the power.

Met up with my beach workout partner this morning nice and early at 6am at Sandon Point and we did a nice jog then several sprints interspersed with walks & jogs - we're not as fit c/v wise as we were last summer - me thanks to injuries and refocusing more on weights, and her thanks to new job, but... we're back into it so we can be jumping out of our skins in no time again.

I am looking forward to kickboxing on Saturday morning though - it's such a great workout and the only time I am not in control of the workout.

All hell breaks loose in the horse world...

Wow. What a difference a weekend can make!! One minute I'm feeling all sorry for myself and my pony with his leg....then people are in lockdown unable to go anywhere with their horses....Some people can't go and see their horses for 30 days as they are in the flu zone... People who have travelled to Parkes to compete with their horses are stuck there now for at least 40 days until the last horse gets rid of its flu...
Hopefully our ponies will remain uninfected. Maybe that's the reason I've not been able to compete this year...
Or maybe not!
Still.
Well, exercise for the past two days has been a very short sharp 20 minute burst of circuit work... since I've had to be in the city for a course by 8.30am. Sleep...that'd be nice.

Have decided to wait until our dear little ridgeback boy comes home before pursuing his potential partner.... Common sense has prevailed. I must be getting old or something.
I was far too emotionally overwrought last week ...

How beautiful the weather has been here too, the past two days... it reached about 27 degrees today... too bad I was stuck inside...

Sore Glutes

Well, I think the combo of Deadlifts, Bulgarian Split Squats and the supine hip / leg extension thingy have really killed my glutes.... of course followed that evening by kickboxing.. then a beach session this morning.

I think I have come to a (difficult) decision regarding my horse. It's time he went out into the big green retirement paddock and played out the rest of his days, without me desperately trying to get him sound again for one thing or another...or simply just to ride. I can honestly say I could count the number of times I've ridden on both hands since October last year....so just shy of a year... if it was just an abberation I could cope...but it's not..it's been more the norm. I think in the 9 years I've had him, probably had about 2-3 good years.... the rest have all been downtime/injuries/recovering....and now he's rising 16.... no spring chicken!

Still, on the bright side, I'll have more money for the time being...and more time to get my business up and running (and time for me to finish my practical side of the course)...and of course, time for our new babies.

Now, I was supposed to stop looking for a second 'child' for the time being. I did promise...but how can you, when you know there are thousands of poor unwanted dogs out there just looking for someone to love them for the rest of their doggie days...
..enter Flick
http://www.petrescue.com.au/view/13275#pic.
who is:
(a) Alive
(b) Available
(c) Has been looking for someone to love her since February..
(d) In the same town as me with her foster carer

Now... I just have to chat to the husband.

I'm not superstitious...but.....

I can't help feeling as though I must have broken a mirror some time ago.

Now, did I foolishly say I was going to ride my horse on Saturday? Silly me...
Saturday morning dawns and I had a phone call from the agistment property... 'Kado has cut his leg'..
When I get there, it appears that Kado has spiked himself on a stick - obviously a very sturdy one as it has left a nice puncture in his front leg - and also chipped a small piece of bone off with it. Excellent.
Faster than you can say, vet bill, the vet's there and it is all bandaged up. (after he'd fossicked in the wound to see if there was any more broken bits...eeeuuuuww).
$Kerching $Kerching.
Hopefully it will heal up nicely, otherwise it may get an infection in the bone.
$Kerching $Kerching.
Which would mean an operation. Hear that cash register ring!
Still... all was not lost on Saturday. I met our gorgeous little tiny bear boy - his eyes were still closed. So cute.
His Mum is divine. I had forgotten just how seriously beautiful ridgeback girls can be. So serene and majestic.
I would have missed my flight on Sunday morning too, had it not been for my friend who was driving me up waking me up with her knocking at the door..... Unbelievable!! I never sleep that late..... a mad race then ensued showering and getting dressed to still get to the airport on time!
Enjoyed the birthday party, then on Monday got up and did the big drive home from BrisVegas to the Gong.
Finally got in at 9.30pm...knackered!
Yesterday I made the mistake of googling to see if I could find the breeder who owns our little boy's dad. Came across a 4 year old Ridgeback girl who had been rescued from euthanasia.
Did some quick grovelling with dear other half and he said yes, happy to save her. Only to call the foster carer and find out she had died after being desexed.
Poor little angel. So I have promised to not do any more searching for our second 'child' yet...
Too much of an emotional roller coaster ride.
Off to kickboxing tonight...had to miss out on weekend and Monday sessions!

BrisVegas or Bust

Well, life has been pretty hectic since we returned from holidays.
Our Bali trip was just exactly what we needed - total relaxation (the Balinese are keen to tell you constantly to just relack!)
We knew our little beloved girl was being looked after at home by our good friends, so we knew she was in good hands, so we enjoyed ourselves totally - cocktails, swimming, sunning, even went running each morning on the beach - saw Michael Klim going for his run too.
Husband got in 19 surfs - so he was pretty happy too.
Oh....did I mention the shopping? hehe. What would a Bali trip be without some good old retail therapy? Got some fabulous silver jewellery too.

Our house is so empty with no 'puppy' love in the home at the moment.... we're quite lost without our little girl.

Well, my calf muscle has well and truly healed, thank goodness, and I am nearly completed week 2 of my Afterburn program. This morning met up for the first time in aaaages with my beach training partner, and we recommenced our weekly beach session.

This weekend I will be:

Saturday: am/ Afternburn workout mid am/ ride horse lunch: drive to see newborn 'son' - a little Rhodesian Ridgeback boy that we will have in 7 weeks time :-)
Sunday: am/ Fly to BrisVegas for Brother in Law's 50th birthday, then drive back with husband (who has left towing the snotmobile for a surprise racetrack day already) on the Monday.

RIP Suki

The little dog with a heart of gold, and too many names passed away last thursday.

Is sorely missed...

Last sleep

Finally the last sleep has arrived!!
This morning I thought I'd best weigh in just to see what I am before holiday mode!! I am sure it will shift a bit - hopefully not too much, I will remain in control, have packed protein bars & taking my yoghurt maker.... sad but true! But at least I'll get my acidophilus to fight the old Bali belly!
It appears that somehow I've lost 2 kilos - must be due to the fact that I've had to change my morning beach workouts to something less cardiovascular! Just goes to show - too much cardio is a negative thing!
Slathered on the old St Tropez fake tan last night - will be so much better when the real thing takes over in the next few days!
See you all in blogland in a couple of weeks.

Final days!

How exciting, in just a couple of days I'll not only have another new hair colour to get used to, but ...will be sunning myself on the beach at Legian.
Fab.

And ...relaxed in the knowledge that all of my exams are now complete...with just the practical to take care of.


My last physio session before holidays went well, he's pleased with my calf..not pleased with my toe which is still twice the size of the other one.... so he's put a new strapping on it. He feels, as I do that two weeks of no kickboxing will probably do it the world of good (there was no sympathy there from him!). The funny thing will be me trying to only run on every third day of my holiday... I had planned on a run each morning. Hmmmm.... will have to get creative - may pack my focus mitts & gloves for my friend & I to punch each other on the other days.