Author: kathleen

Julie Wright taught me something very important.   You have to tell the story.  I cried most oaf the day on the first day of agility because of Julie, and I cry every time I think of her.

When I started writing the website for the American Beagle Relief Fund, I was very upset over the URL of the website.  ambrn was very hard to type and even harder to read correctly, but she said it had to be that, it was because of a dog named Amber and that Amber wasn't a beagle.  She told me that she would tell me the rest of the story later.

I don't know the rest of the story, and I'm sad because the board thought I knew the story.  And please if anyone knows the rest of the story, please come  tell me and I'll put it in this blog.

Everyone who knows me, knows how much I love my beagles.  I tell everyone that I married my first beagle.  That's true, I dated a lot of young men after I got out of college, and one of my favorites failed his pilot's test (for those who don't know there are three types of pilots, those who fly, those you wash out, and those who fail one of the tests).  Richard was the only one with a dog.  Snooper hated me, but that's another story.

I grew up loving basinji's.  We lived next door to a young couple who had them, and they borrowed my sister and I.  I was always busy with my father, so they let her show the puppies.  My family doesn't get dogs.

Richard told me that I could my own dog as long as it was a beagle.  We went back to Snooper's breeder and got Missy.  That breeder guided us on breeder our first litter.  And our second.  But the owners wouldn't do what we said, and we found out that puppies died because they didn't do what we ask.  We kept one of the last, Weaver's Peppermint Patty.

Patty was a very very bad beagle.  She was even more naughty than Emma, Emma, bad dog.  She would bite us and I couldn't figure out why.  Patty was a very tiny, very black beagle.  Our hunting beagle breeder called her a blue tick beagle.  I don't understand why, another person who didn't tell me the story.

I went to Phillip Marr in Dallas and he taught me how to train dogs.  Though his way wasn't the right way, Peppermint Patty learned to be a very good beagle.  And she loved me.  You see, Snooper hated me because I wouldn't let him eat junk food.  Missy liked me too, but she liked her puppies better.  Patty was the first beagle who loved me as much as I love dogs and beagles.

Patty is the reason I am a teacher.  I loved teaching Patty.  I love computers and love all technology, but I loved Patty more.  Patty is my first heart dog.  Patty is in a box in my bedroom.

When I decided to become a teacher, I asked one of my obedience exhibitor friends advice on being a teacher.  She told me to read Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog:", first edition.

Because of Patty, I'm a clicker trainer.  Because of Patty, I met Karen Pryor, Marian and Bob Bailey.  They taught me you could use love to train a beagle.   Patty and I went to the Houston specialty because  Patty wanted a puppy.  I was looking all over the place for a puppy at the time, but we couldn't find one.  What I really wanted was a Chardon puppy, but Patty didn't really like them, she really wanted another field beagle.  Charles was very kind to Patty, but that wasn't what Patty wanted.

The conformation breeders all scared me.  They wouldn't sell me a puppy and I was very hurt.   Only two people at that specialty were nice to me.  Charles and Donna Kitchell.  Charles knew who Patty was, everyone else said she was just a field beagle.

But I love field beagles.  And couldn't really like anyone who thought Patty was just a field beagle

I met Mildred at an obedience trial.  She loved Patty too, but I don't think she knew who Patty really was.

I got Marcie because Patty wanted a puppy.  You see, Patty loved puppies.  I'm going to tell Marcie's story too.

I got into police dog training because of a very bad man.  I don't tell that story in public, but I've just told a friend what I know.  But while the man was bad, he had a good idea and I did a lot of good with that good idea.

There was a police dog that loved Patty, his name is Fonzie.  I shared his video.  Fonzie was trained by one of the smartest dog trainers I know.  I hope to tell that story soon too.

So for those of you who came and watched Patty compete in Obedience, I thank you.  Many of you did.   Next to Patty's box, there is a bowl. It came from the 1990 National Specialty and she was honored as the NBC Obedience Beagle of the year.  I was afraid to come because it hurt me when people said she was just a field beagle. 

So know you know why I'm behind the camera and why even though Julie begged me, I wouldn't come.   And you know why I keep crying.

And why I'm very friendly and very nice to everyone.  Even though so many beagle people aren't smart enough to realize how special field beagles can be.

I also have a very hard time being around anyone who doesn't train with love.

So when see me crying, I'm crying because I wanted to meet Julie but I was scared to.

I'm also very brave when I see people who train with love.  So please Mildred, I need Sam to sit with me tomorrow.  And please come to the camera to help me honor Julie.  And let's laugh and be friends.

I wish I was as brave as Joseph.  But I'm not very brave.

For the first time since the drunk driver hit the house I was able to sleep with my dogs in my bed.  You see, I woke up that night, looked down the stairs, and then yelled:

"Rich, there's a truck in the house."

Then:

"When I get through with you, you're going to wish you were dead"

Then:

"Rich, grab the dogs and put them in your room".

Then I ran to the office, dialed 911.

I felt so bad for the first guy on scene as there was no one in the truck.  

He was there in seconds after I dialed, and he was in full cop mode, gun drawn etc.  He next started yelling, "Ms. Weaver, are you okay". 

Then we were swarmed by all the public service people. 

We couldn't find Dulce.  Rich had grabbed Macy, Maggie had dived behind my desk and was in full panic mode. 

I started screaming for Dulce and was hysterical.  One of the firefighters found her and brought her to me upstairs.  She was having a bad dog moment, on the whole opposite side of the house eating on a month's supply of pill poppers.  That box had been sitting there for days and they hadn't touched it.

She's definitely related to Emma, Emma, bad dog.

Our first responders are so good.  Every single first responder in Farmers Branch was in our house that night.  They had to bring me a pair of shoes as there was glass everywhere and back then I didn't keep shoes upstairs.

They evacuated us to the back deck because they were afraid the whole house would come down.

One dear brave fireman got poor Maggie from under my desk.  Though he did wear his fire gloves.  I was afraid they would scare her more and I knew she wouldn't bite him, but he was right, if he bit at her and he automatically reacted, that would scare her too.

She started out scared before I started screaming.  And she was terrified of police lights.

The cops showed us the car of bad guys and they told us to make sure that the damages hit the felony numbers.

The fire chief was scared that house was going to come down and they replaced the broken column with a big jack.  Once they did that, they got the cars out.

For the whole time while the house was being repaired,  our workers saw a police officer at least every 10 minutes, and so did I.

And this is why I love Farmers Branch and I love our cops.

Though it has nothing to do with the fact that my daddy's daddy and his brother were both cops.

My great uncle died in the line of duty, as did one of my best friends in life, Aubrey Hawkins.  We never could get that dear man in a bite suit — he was afraid he would hurt one of the dogs, and man did he love Aysha.  She'd bit his fingers though!

I'm not going to be Julie Wright.  I'm going to tell the story.

I talked with the doctor, saw what @shanselman had to say and decided to go with short acting insulin only.  Here's why:

• The Lantus prescription costs about $153.00 
• I have used long acting insulin for a year, and it sucked.  It was Lily 70/30 insulin and it always had an uneven release causing roller coaster highs and lows.
• It's only until Monday morning.  I can wake up every four hours to take another shot for three days, especially since I don't have to report to a job with other humans.
•  I have a diabetes alert dog that won't let me get into trouble.

So the doctor sent me instructions based on my pump settings.  I've put those settings in a OneNote page, and as I said earlier, I'm tracking what I am doing with that One Note page.  Probably will keep everything on one page.

I've been pumping insulin since 2004.  This is the first pump I've killed by my actions and the first time I've had to go back to shots.  I have been using insulin since 2002.  I think I can do the 4 days and the Lantus is sitting in the pharmacy fridge.

Oh, and by the way, my Walgreens was out of pen needles, they should get a box of needles with each box of pens.

A friend was asking about solutions for tags.  This is what I use:

 

 

My first try at handling both dogs after a long time off.

Physically I am better.

Macy got the FAST and went where I told her to. I didn't do the math right. She got distracted during JWW and Standard.

I left after Dulce FAST because she wasn't listening to me and I don't want to reward that behavior.

Sent from my Windows Phone

There is a facility very close to my house, run by people who claim to be positive reinforcement trainers, but aren’t.

Yesterday was a good example.

The woman I’m speaking of is a Karen Pryor certified trainer, and I have officially complained about her in the past.

So I peed the girls before I went in.

The fun match was a bit delayed, but neither dog had access to water. 

So Dulce has a pretty good run.  She stops and sniffs a few things but not bad.  We took a second pass at the teeter, as she really had it together, and on the middle of the teeter she pees.

The person in question finds out and starts screaming at me.  Mind you, she’s part of the reason that Dulce has this issue in the first place.  I said I was leaving and wanted a refund on the rest of my runs, which they refused.

The good news: I won’t be entering anything else, and I was thinking about entering the upcoming Teacup trial, saving me a couple of hundred dollars.

First one in a long time.

No zoomies and no peeing in the ring.

A nice ternager and her uncle followed us in thinking I would know where to go. <sigh> I didn't but we all got there.  Beagles are so predictable, Macy has to pee first, then Dulce will.  Girl wanted to why, and I said, "They are beagles,"

Macy wasn't her self, but she had her ears packed yesterday morning,we got it right on the third try.

Dulce did a really nice job, both runs.

We are trying a different one tomorrow.

 

I got Taggs on my dogs when Maggie started escaping.  That started when a drunk driver drove into the house.

It went on for several years after.

Maggie was almost 15 years old when she got to where she screamed anytime I touched her (for a week) and the last day when my husband touched her.

Dulce and Macy have never left the property without either Maggie taking them, or one of the humans.  Actually Dulce hasn’t ever left the property.  Once she left the back yard when Maggie opened the gate, but didn’t leave. 

Macy has only made it to the park.  Then she laid down and waited for us.

The last time Maggie escaped, the other dogs stayed in the house.  She dug under the dog run and when through the fence.

She was determined to leave during a rain storm.

Here’s the main reason I cancelled my Taggs:  They break fairly easily and only have a 1 year warranty.  Replacing them now costs more than the original service and the monthly service has gone up.  The web site does not work well with Internet Explorer, something I consider the gold standard.  If your website doesn’t work with IE, I’m not doing business with you.

Also the battery life has went from 3 weeks to about 3 days.  No changes in my dogs activity.

Just checked my claim status and they paid all but $5.00 of an tooth extraction and cleaning she had two weeks ago today.

I can’t see the detail as to what they didn’t pay, but we have Major Medical and CareGuard Premium.

Now I can’t wait to see what they paid on Dulce’s.  Hers was a cleaning only so I don’t expect the same rate of coverage.

I got a Bark Box each for Macy and Dulce.  They are great.  This month, Macy got a chewy and two bags of treats.  Also got two toys.  Often the toys only least a few minutes, but they do enjoy them.  I am not sure I do.

They complete degut them and then we have plush toy guts all over the house.

Get your own here: