Rocky's day out...

Today I worked with Rocky, the St. Bernard who's afraid of people. He isn't aggressive, just shy. If you approach him or make sudden movements around him, it scares him, so he barks at you to make you go away. With a dog this size, it works... which is completely the opposite of what he needs. I arrived at Becky's house around noon, telling her I was going to kidnap him for the day and work with him, offering proof that he CAN be social. I lined up a few friends to help, and the big guy and I headed to downtown Portland to start his therapy.

I parked near the waterfront, and headed down to the grassy area, thinking that it would be a fairly easy place for directonally challenged Geoff, and puppy-wrangling Amy to find us. How can you miss a dog this big? We settled down on the grass next three people around my age hanging out drinking in the sun. Far enough away that Rocky didn't feel intimidated, but close enough that he had to deal with their presence. He hung out in the grass, enjoying the sunshine, and even started to accept them. They handed him some treats, as an ice breaker, and then he was ok with them.

Amy arrived first, wrangling Paris and Cesar. Rocky and Paris had classes together, so he had no problems with her.


It took him a bit to warm to Cesar, and for Cesar to warm to him. Cesar being just a puppy, he's a little insecure himself. He actually peed when he first got close to Rocky. Soon after though, they got along just great.


It took a few phone calls and bad directions for Geoff to locate us. When he arrived, we said our goodbyes to the people who so graciously let us invade their space on the grass, and headed over to Saturday market, to expose Rocky to more people than he'd ever been around at one time.

On the walk over, we encountered a couple with a ferret. After talking to them for a few minutes, they said they'd be more than happy to let the dogs sniff the ferret. Each one of the dogs took turns sniffing the musky creature, and showing LOTS of interest.

I was pretty surprised at how many people completely ignored Paris and Cesar, heading right for the lumbering St. Bernard who's afraid of people. Thankfully, every person who approached ASKED if they could pet him, allowing me time to tell them how to do it so he didn't freak out.

The ones that impressed the family the most, were the pictures of him with kids. They're far too afraid of him hurting someone to let him around children. I showed them that with the right approach, anyone could touch him.

People of different races, people in funny hats and sunglasses...

and we did all of this right by the fountain/food area where there were lots of distracting smells and sounds. Rocky seemed to enjoy actually watching the rodeo clown guy do his act to the beats of some nearby drummer.

Around 2:30 we decided to head out, as I had been invited to a barbeque at Justin's house, (to which I responded, "Great! I'll bring some chips, soda and a St. Bernard, cool?") and Geoff and Amy had things to do. Me walking Rocky, Amy walking Cesar and Geoff attempting to walk Paris, (more like Paris walking him) causing his pants to fall down, as he had forgotten to wear a belt.

Rocky and I headed down to Beaverton for the bbq and upon arrival, we went to Justin's back yard where I could take him off leash. He was really good. Everyone listened to me on how to deal with him, and the worst thing he did was drool alot from the smell coming off the bbq and beg for some of it when it was done. He barked at Asa once, because Asa forgot to let him sniff him before attempting to pet him, but he was never aggressive the whole day. Everyone else who wanted to pet him, did so, without issue.

I even used him as a pillow, and Justin said, "I thought you were supposed to drool on the pillow." I said, "Well, that's life.. sometimes you drool on the pillow, sometimes the pillow drools on you!"

Around 5:30 I headed back to my place to download the pictures from the day and email them to the family, so that when I arrived with their dog, they could see what we had done all day. He was so worn out, he passed out in my back seat snoring on the way back.

They were really happy, surprised, relieved and grateful. We're going to make a plan to get together and do it again, this time taking Becky along, so SHE can feel confident with him. We also discussed some issues she's been having with her other dogs, and I showed her how to work on fixing those problems. A very rewarding day.

Another SoR victory...

at a craptastic venue.

Originally, the second round of Emergenza was supposed to be at Dante's. But due to the intelligent planning of the Emergenza staff, Dante's was already booked for another show that night. So the venue was moved to Loveland, with the cover, "that there was such a high demand for an all-ages venue."

For those of you who haven't been to the Loveland, and I'm sure there's lots... Loveland looks like it used to be a basement warehouse used for producing low budget porn. I mean,

LOOK AT THE BATHROOMS!

The bonus of making it an all ages venue, besides Jason offering to buy the crowd a round of M&M's (which he didn't follow through on, damn you Jason!) was that Warren could invite all of his students. (He's affectionately known as the 'Bad Professor' after a Steven Lynch song, as he's a professor and drumline instructor at high schools and colleges).

To add to the blunders of the evening, Eldon forgot his camera, so the only photgraphic evidence came from my camera phone, which takes fantastic day pictures, but really really bad low light pictures. Give me a break its a camera Phone, deal. I only took a couple pictures before I realized the effort was futile. Thankfully, Son of Rust played first, so we could all leave right after for some place cooler. We settled on Noir, a gothy lounge a few blocks up from the Loveland to wait for the results. Eldon, Geoff, Ashlee and I arrived first and hung out talking amongst ourselves, which is always a fun experience.

Again, Noir is very dark, so the pictures didn't turn out so well. For your amusement and their embarrassment, I submit...

STRAW WARS!

and that's all I have to say about that.... and Geoff got laughed at for ordering a Shirley Temple. The bartenders retort? "Um, this is a bar."

Scared Shitless....

Yesterday a lady came in with two adorable little 6 week old jack russel pups. I cooed at how cute they were and the lady, half sarcastically, half exasperated said, "Yeah, cute." I looked at her funny, and she told me how the puppies "weren't supposed to be here." When her female went into heat, she immediately did the responsible thing and went and got her male neutered, so as not to have to contend with puppies. The NEXT DAY after the dog returned home from being neutered, he mated with her female and got her pregnant. Then she laughed and said, "they took the bullets out of the gun, but forgot the one in the chamber!"

Then she went on to tell me how evil her male dog is. "He's not social... at all. Dogs, people, whatever, he's terrified." I told her I would love to work with him, and that she should bring him in, to which she laughed with that "you sure about that?" way. I assured her I was prepared for whatever would happen.... Well I wasn't exactly prepared, but it worked out anyway...

I was just about to leave for lunch when I heard a dog barking hysterically by the front door. I immediately realized that must be the dog in question. As I approached, I realized he was so scared, he was expelling his bowels! (That's the polite way to say he was spewing liquid shit all over the place)
I grabbed the leash from the lady, so her and her son could start cleaning up the mess, and the dog slipped his collar! So the lady grabbed the dog and picked him up so we could get the leash back on and he didn't bolt either out the door or toward other people and dogs in the store. At which point, he spewed all over her too! The lady was so good natured about it though. She was actually appologizing to ME! She says to her son, "Um, Dennis, cleanup on aisle... ME!"

I grabbed a Gentle Leader, the staple for any dog that is nearly impossible to handle, and put it on him while he was in her arms. At that point, he started to settle down, as he was more concerned with wtf was on his face than what was going on around him. Then I went for a walk around the store with him, leaving the owners at the front of the store. Within 10 minutes the dog was panting heavily, but laying on the floor next to the son, watching the world go by. Dogs, people, etc. He was too exhausted to care and actually relaxed. He's nowhere near done, but it proved to the family that there was definate hope for this scared shitless dog. Sometimes, even with the disgusting parts, my job is so rewarding!

Hope for Yuki and Mocha

My "devil dogs" graduated today. When I say 'graduated' I mean that they fulfilled all the obedience requirements for the class, and the other two dogs Rocks and Vallen should go on to the next level of training.

Rocks-springer spaniel

Vallen-yellow lab

But for Yuki and Mocha, they did all the basic sit, stay, lay down, walk on leash, come when called, etc... but they both still have behavioral issues that would inhibit their success in the next level of training. So, both of them decided that they were going to repeat the Beginner class, in order to get their dogs exposed to other dogs more. However, there is definate hope for them.

This picture proves that Yuki has the ability to get along with other dogs, it's just going to take him some time to become comfortable with them:

Yuki, surrounded by Rocks, Wesley, and Vallen.

In addition, it looks like I will be working with Mocha on the outside. I really hope so. She showed massive improvement, wandering around, but when the other dogs (all off leash, and no blood was shed!) approached her, she barked and lunged at them to go away. She's not confident enough to allow them to be up close and personal with her just yet. I'd love to see her get to that point. Her family was impressed that I was just able to put a hat on her and take a picture. They didn't think it would happen. Hehe. Sneaky, sneaky!

Conflicted....

Today I had a second interview with Care Medical. Although I hope to get the job with the vet clinic as it would be more up my alley, the medical supply place would be a whole lot more convienent commute wise.
The vet clinic is located about 10 minutes from PCC, and they would work around my school schedule, so I would be able to keep the job more long term. However, I don't know if they're going to pay me well enough to survive and keep me in gas money for the 45 minute commute every day.
I would have to leave the medical supply company once I started school, which I'm sure won't make them very happy... but I have to do what's best for my future. I know they're looking for someone for more than just a short term commitment, and I hate disappointing people. Also, I'll have to look for another job once I start school if I take the job.

However, the dog training side tends to really be picking up, so who knows.. I might be able to support myself during school by just doing that! Wishful thinking there, I'm sure.

I went down to Kinko's today and had them print me up 200 pimped out business cards for me though. I have to say pimped out, because I designed them myself. They're sweet! I'll post one as soon as I pick them up tomorrow.

Took Wes to the dog park and ended up giving my number to a pregnant woman with a dominant, food-guarding beagle that she wants to get straightened out before the baby comes. So I guess I should just hang out at the dog park with my cards!

Sunday I get to work with Rocky. A St. Bernard from one of my classes, who all the sudden is afraid of people. He barks at them. It's scary when a dog who's head is bigger than you is barking at you! So I'm going to take him out and work on socializing him away from his family, who can't help him right now because they're too afraid he will bite someone, and they pass that fear down the leash on to him. I fixed Wesley when he had that problem, I can fix Rocky.

Working on working...

and a little bit of play.

Sunday, Wesley and I met up with Amy and Paris at the dog park. We decided to bring her new addition, the sheepdog puppy, for his first socialization at the park. She picked him up Saturday morning, and promptly came down to my work so I could meet him. She threw out a few names, and then she said, "I also thought about calling him Cesar, after Cesar Millan." All I could say was, "You HAVE to name him Cesar!" and so it was. After she had made the decision, I thought about it, and she should have called him Millan.. then she would have Paris and Milan.. I'm such a dork!

While there, I met up with Lee and Lucienne, the owners of one of my favorite students... Jamie, the Irish Wolfhound. They said they were interested in having some private training with Jamie, as he seemed to be back-sliding and would love to have the help at home. So, it looks like the end of June I'll get to play with Jamie some more. I love that dog.

I'm standing at the park, talking to Amy, while Wesley and Paris were wandering doing their own thing, and the next thing I know there's a weimaraner standing next to me. I pet him, thinking it's Wesley and then I realize the collar is different. "Wait, this isn't Wesley!" Amy and I both look at the big male weim surprised. Then a lady walks up to us and says, "Nope, that's Casper. He's mine. He has a heart condition. I'm not only his mom, but also his vet." I mention to her that I just got accepted to the Vet Tech program at PCC and she says, "Wow, that's great.. you should apply at my clinic, they're always looking for techs they can train, and we hire students." So I went down on Monday and applied.

Wesley had a grand time as usual, and he really needed the socialization. He gets a lot when I take him to work, but he's never allowed to just roam and do what he wants when he's there. He really enjoys the freedom of the dog park, and it's an incredible place to make connections, apparently. Even if I don't get the job, I will definately go to Dr. Matarazzo for Wesley's vet needs, considering she HAS a weimaraner!

Monday I had an interview for a reception position for home design company, and then also enrolled in a temp agency. I really don't care for the temp agency though. I felt like I was in prison as long as they kept me. Wati....Fill this out... wait... take 5 separate types of typing tests... wait.... show us your id... wait... get an interview... only to be told they don't have anything for you, so wait some more. I think I'll do better on my own. So after finally being released from there 3 hours later, I went down and dropped off my resume at the vet clinic mentioned above.

Then it was time for some fun!

Originally, Geoff had contacted Eldon and myself, saying, "I don't care who we have to kill, we're going to this!"

No cover... $2 drinks, and strippers attempting to play a game show?? How can you say no to this? I'm going to rip some of the breakdown of the evening right from Geoff's interpretation of the night, as he is much more eloquent than I. Color coded for your convenience. My comments will be in this color. His in yellow.

"Altogether there were seven of us - a female friend,(me) her boyfriend,(Eldon) another gal,(Ashlee) her boss,(Dimitri) and a married couple (Chris and Leanne). Oh, and me (Geoff). A very mixed bunch. Much to our chagrin, Stripper Wars had been cancelled. However, we decided to stick it out at the Ash Street and deprive them of their happy hour specials."

After the realization that Stripper Wars had been cancelled, we had to make our own fun.... Ashlee broke out the bubbles, which Geoff took to much like Eldon's cat does when we break out the "catnip bubbles".

Eldon thought it was amusing to keep the $2 drinks coming....

Notice my eyes match the drinks?

Funny thing is, I think I was the only one who was actually sober by the time we left. I didn't even drink both of those. Good thing too, because I was driving. :)

Wait.. I take that back, Geoff had to go to work later, so he had to make the claim that, "Real men drink near beer!"

Eldon put me in a headlock for some reason, and Ashlee joined in at the last second, making it yet another "Eldon moment".

It was Geoff's idea that a "reverse Eldon moment" had to be captured. Who am I to complain surrounded by guys? :)

I don't know what Ashlee's boss Dimitri was thinking. Either, "These guys are retarded." "Hmm.. is it warm in here to anyone else?" or "Pass me another drink!"

Either way, Chris and Leanne seemed to have a good time, although they sorta kept their additions to our conversations to a minimum, until it came to the sweaters... and I'll get to that. But first, back to Geoff's rundown of the topics:

"We b.s.'d for a good hour and a half

.
Subjects covered (in no particular order and not limited to):
(1) Cheese modeling (dont' ask... it had to do with a conversation Eldon, Ashlee and I had at the melting pot.)

(2) German sweaters

I love getting Geoff and Chris together, they just play off of each other so well. This was actually taken WHILE they were discussing German Sweaters, complete with the bad accents and all.

(3) Clown porn (This actually exists, and sadly I have to admit I've been subjected to it MORE THAN ONCE!)
(4) Gay cheese modeling (A Geoff original, a spin off of the cheese modeling discussed above.)
(5) Penis torture (as in, Don't see the movie "Sick")
(6) Orgazmo (as in, a MUST see movie.)
(7) Low-rent deities (The dieties in question.... Testocles, Gonad the Barbarian, and Hermaphrodite.. at least one of which I believe is a Geoff original.)

Geoff only claims responsibilty for two of these... I love my friends!

At 7:30 or so, it was decided that due to the lack of boob-age from the cancellation, our mini-herd had to relocate. The general consensus was a strip joint."Isn't it always when I'm involved.. How does that happen?

So we went to Cocktails and Dreams, because I had heard about the fountain stage, but I really HAD to see it. No pictures from inside of course... let's just say it was really fun, and us girls had just as much fun, if not more than the guys did! What a night!

I love it when.....

a plan comes together.

I'm hoping I'm not speaking too soon, but this week of stress seems to have paid off, in many ways. I had a really promising interview this week, in fact the boss said if he hadn't already scheduled other interviews he would have hired me on the spot! The pessimist in me says, "Maybe he says that to ALL his interviews," but it sure made me feel pretty good, even if I don't get the job.

The stress and the worry and the jamming as much into as little time as possible, and even the parking ticket was worth it on the school end as well. I had a meeting with the head of the Vet Tech program at PCC, and after reviewing my transcripts from my old college in Pennsylvania, decided that instead of being a normal applicant to the vet tech program, I would be accepted as a transfer student, and that I'm definately IN the program!!!!

Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going to pay for it... heh.

Eldon finally got the dates nailed down from his job for the Arizona trip... I'm really excited about that. I haven't seen my dad in 4 years! In addition to that, getting out of town and away from it all for a few days sounds FAN-fucking-TASTIC right about now. Mid May, I'll be basking (read baking) in the Arizona sun! woo hoo! I won't even have to pay someone to watch Wesley, as Amy, my future roommate, said she would be happy to watch him.

Perhaps one of the most rewarding things that happened this week, was tonight at work. I knicknamed my Friday 7:30 class, my "devil dogs" class, because in addition to the sweet Springer Spaniel named Rocks, and the unbelievably chill Yellow Lab named Vallen, I have the completely terrified of everything chihuahua named Mocha, who barks and even nipped at me the first couple of weeks of class. Classic fear biter. Also in this class, is Yuki, a Jack Russel/Poodle mix who is probably one of the worst cases of dog-reactionary fear I've ever seen. He barks, he nips at anything nearby if he can't get to what he's afraid of, he rears up on his hind legs and spins out of control... until today. This is the 7th week I've had this class, and for some reason, today was the day they turned around, and I think alot of it has to do with Wesley.

Today, Mocha was venturing out into the center of the training ring, tail up, and curiously sniffing the other dogs and other people.. something she's NEVER done without being forced to do so. and Yuki, PLAYED with Wesley. Wesley played back too, another thing that doesn't happen very often. I was absolutely amazed. I think the "pack mentality" played a role in it, as the balance of calm dogs outweighed the unstable dogs, forcing the unstable dogs to become calm. Again, thanks to Wesley, another class of frustrated dog owners goes home happy. I don't think I'd be half the trainer without this dog. I don't know what I'd do without him. He amazes me every couple of days.

so it's been over a week

since my last confession... er blog. What have I been up to? Well, lets see.....

I reunited a very excited Jasmine with her family on Sunday, and they were extremely pleased with the results. I saw her again on Tuesday, when she graduated my class with flying colors.. *cough* Of course she did! She spent a week at my house, there's no way she wouldn't graduate!




I had two interviews last week, both of which were jobs that I had to say, "Thanks, but no thanks!" to. One was for a position with AFLAC insurance company. Apparently they wanted me to become an insurance agent. Which wouldn't be so bad, except that they wanted me to pay $400 to become licensed, then I would be able to pimp out everyone I know by putting them on a list and attempting to sell them insurance. No thanks.. I actually LIKE my friends, I'd like to keep them, AND if I had $400, I would not be spending it on becoming an insurance agent.

The second, was for some law firm in downtown Portland. A legal secretary position. Again, sounded good in the ad. Until he told me, "We're just starting out, so right now it would be flexible scheduling, and not too many hours (like 10 a week). " Sorry, but I can't live on that, it would actually work out to being LESS than what I make now, which I almost didn't think was possible.

Went to have a fabulously cheap and incredibly good steak dinner at the Acropolis with Eldon, Geoff and Ashlee, no pictures of course because the Acrop, in addition to being the cheapest place to get a REALLY fantastic steak, is also a strip club.

I had a couple more classes graduate...

Back row: Doja the flying pit bull, and Hunter the hiding black lab

Front row: Prince, Oscar, Mimi, Boston and Domino

Joey, Pepper, and Grace

Kyleigh, Chloe and Swayd

Watched a crap-ton of movies: Sound of Thunder, A remake ripoff movie about some guy that invents a way to go back in time and hunt dinosaurs for a price, and ends up changing evolution....A History of Violence, which I thought was pretty good, definately a different kind of movie, very moody... Just Like Heaven, a cute chick flick with an interesting idea, and some other movie I can't remember that I rented... must have been that good.

Went to see Lucky Number Slevin which I thought was a really clever movie, but I can't tell you anything about it, or I literally will ruin it for you.

Went out to the Melting Pot with Ashlee and Eldon last night....

Ashlee loves cheese so much, she couldn't even wait for the waiter to bring our fondue forks.

Can you blame her though? With a spread that yummy looking?

I did my fair share of stuffing my face as well.

As always when there is more women than men, Eldon must have his Moment TM

Their spinach and artichoke dip is fantastic! This coming from someone who absolutely HATES spinach. It must be the incredible amount of cheese they put in the dip.

About the time dessert came, Ashlee had to decide if the dessert would be the chocolate in front of her, or the "booty call" sending her text messages on her phone.

In the end, I think the chocolate won out. It did have Bailey's in it, and there were strawberries, bananas, pineapples, graham cracker and oreo rolled marshmallows, brownies, pound cake and cheesecake....

I also got another parking ticket.. this time on the PCC campus... I was there trying to enroll for school.. of course I don't have a parking permit for the school, I'm trying to BECOME a student! There were no signs stating that where I parked was permit only, but sure enough, I came out after getting the run around and getting nowhere closer to actually enrolling in school, to a $20 parking ticket. If they don't accept me into the program they can kiss my ass for the parking ticket money.

I also found a roommate! I don't have to live in Little Mexico for another year! YAY! My lease expires in June, so I've been trying to decide what I'm going to do. My friend Amy has a nice place in a better part of town and said Wesley and I could live there. Wow, two weimaraners in the same house, that's going to be interesting. Even more interesting is the fact that Saturday, she's getting an 11 week old Old English Sheepdog puppy. So it's going to be us two girls and a pack of dogs! Fun!!

I finally did some long overdue maintanence on my car. Got an oil change, replaced some disgusting filters, washed my car, spent literally hours vacuuming and dusting the inside, in addition to removing every last Wesley nose smudge from the inside of the glass, and even threw my seat covers in the washing machine! My car actually smells, feels and drives so much better! They did give me some bad news though, my front right tire is "balding" and I could use an alignment. This is NOT the tire that blew out on me in September that Jesse so kindly replaced for me on his visit... it's the other one. Great! Cuz I can SO afford a new tire right now!!!

So... not a whole lot of exciting news, but just in case you were wondering.. I didn't fall off the planet, I just didn't have a whole lot to say. Most stuff was frustration related, job search, school run-around, car maintanence etc, and I wanted to wait until I could blog about it all in a funny way, rather than bitch and moan about it. :P