The Rose City Gathering of the 4-Legged and the 2-Legged

There I was: 2 for 2. Two blogs entries on the first two days of 2011.

Now, several weeks later, comes number 3. The "two for two" was clearly a fluke and I knew that at the time. I was on vacation and had time to write. Getting back to work after the holiday break brought the pace back to reality. Dogs, laundry, housecleaning, work, dogs, work, laundry, take-out-the-garbage, clean the dog runs, work, laundry. (It seems like I do a lot of laundry, doesn't it? Probably not, but I just hate laundry so I think I fixate on it.)

Wait.....hold that thought: A certain 5 month old Elkhound (Aksel) has just popped his head up beside me and is literally tapping a paw on my shoulder which means, "Hey! Let me outside....or else!" I don't want to clean up "or else" so I'll be back.......

Crisis averted.

Where was I? Life has been very busy for these first weeks of January. I'm always amazed at how maybe only 3 weeks have gone by, yet the holidays seem like they happened months ago. We, meaning Espen and Aksel, were out of town last weekend at a dog show in Puyallup, Washington. Espen got a nice win for more points up there, and Aksel learned that riding a hotel elevator is really fun. Well, he probably wouldn't say "really" but he handled it pretty well. He still needs to work on not bailing out the moment the door opens.

Then tomorrow kicks off the big 4-day "Rose City Classic" in Portland. Being on the Show Committee and President of our kennel club, I can't show my dogs due to interaction with the judges, but it's still an incredibly fun weekend. But then being around nearly 3,000 dogs just does that to me.

I always encourage people to go to this show, saying if you only hit one a year, this is the one to see. At the same time, I caution them that this show is NOT how most shows are. You could say this show has a lot of "glitz." It's in a beautiful building, with beautiful lighting that I say makes all of us, dogs and humans, look really good.

There are tons of rings, great vendors, a gigantic grooming area, and it's put together in a really classy way. It might lull you into thinking when we go off to dog shows it's always this way. Actually, there are many more shows where we're in old barns and buildings at an old fairgrounds, grooming in stalls where we might be standing in the mud, and we lift the dogs in and out so they don't get dirty after we groom them, and using restroom stalls that, rather than a lock, have a nail tied to an old piece of string that you push into a hole to keep the door shut (yes, that really happened.) That's the other side of things. 

Frankly, none of that bothers us, as you go where you have to go to find the points for the dog to win. But, I think we can all agree we appreciate shows like Rose City when they come along. Not only that, but we get to see some of the top dogs in the country who travel here to compete in this show. It's a big deal to win Best In Show here, so the "big guns" come in from all over, and we get to see the top handlers and some of the top dogs, which is fun in and of itself. You read about these dogs in the dog show publications, see their pictures, see their names in the national rankings, and this is a weekend when we get the chance to see them in person.

I always enjoy seeing the reaction someone has the first time they go to a dog show. Frequently it's, "I've never seen such beautiful dogs in my whole life!" To be honest, we who do this all the time often forget this. We're used to seeing them, but when somebody says that, it often does make us stop and really look at them. I always love it when David Frei, the longtime announcer of the Westminster Kennel Club Show, says during the broadcast, "and remember that even though these are beautiful dogs, they're still real dogs and somebody's pet, that drinks out of the toilet, sleeps on the bed, and steals food off the counter." It's all true.

I also love the fact that at a dog show, you have amateurs, meaning "Owner-Handlers" in the ring right beside the professional handlers, and the amateur handler can still win. Sure, the amateur has to work at it, and polish their skills as a handler, but it's completely possible. The pros will always say, "The one thing I can't duplicate is that relationship between the owner and their dog." That's where the owner-handler can have the advantage if they work at it. Those are the special moments that are great to witness.

But there are many of those moments at dog shows. Call me a big mush, which I am, but I don't think we ever get through the 4 days without getting teary-eyed over something. One year it was actually a bit funny only in how much it impacted many of the men who were watching. Our kennel club had raised money to buy more bullet-proof vests for the local police dogs. We had a special presentation for the dogs and the officers who are their handlers and their families were there as well. It took no time for all of us at ringside to get teary-eyed and many of the guys in our club were wiping their eyes. We all actually started laughing at each other for our blubbering, and one of the guys said, "Damn it! I swore I wasn't going to do this!"

There can be tears over a new Champion who might be the son or daughter of a dog who has just passed on. It can be that moment when an owner-handler who bred the dog gets a big win in the Group ring and they drop to their knees and hug the dog.

Sometimes it's actually nothing big, but you'll just be watching at ringside and you'll see this moment when the dog stops and stares up in the face of its' owner and the owner looks back at the dog and there's just that.....something....and you recognize it in their eyes and suddenly you feel that lump in your throat. Or it's that happy puppy who is at his first dog show, clueless as to what he's supposed to do, but he's in there with such joy, that you can't help but smile. Maybe it's hard to explain if you haven't directly felt it, but I'll wager anybody can understand it if they understand that special connection between humans and dogs.

Of course, we more than balance things out with lots of laughs, goofing around, ringside analysis of dog show fashion, and long discussions over when the best time is to make the daily visit to the ice cream vendor.

It will be a great 4 days with our 4-legged and 2-legged friends.

More when we return.

Rules for 2011: Clean Out Your Briefcase, & Don’t Pee on Others

On the second day of 2011, here's the second blog for 2011. Believe me, I have NO intention of continuing at this pace once I get back to work tomorrow, but something just happened here that made me think there's no time like the present to write another installment. More on that in a moment, but first I want to pose this question:

Why does the first day back to work for the New Year, after taking over a week off, always feel like the first day of school? Or is this another of those things where my sister would say, "Lisa, it doesn't feel that way to the rest of us. It's just another of your weird things." Fine, I'm used to that, but for me, that is how it feels. It's that whole fresh start. I've cleaned out the briefcase (and wondered why I only do that once a year. It probably weighs a pound less!) I have the fresh new desk calendars ready to take to work. The house is all clean and in order and the laundry is done. If you know me and laundry, that's a major thing in and of itself. I'm trying to decide what new clothes I'm going to wear this week. Now, if only "Picture Day" could be thrown in, it would be EXACTLY like heading back to school.

But maybe that's just me.

Alright, time to get back to what just happened that triggered me to write:

Saber just peed on Savannah. I'm talking dead-center, right in the middle of her back. Here's how the discovery sounded, verbatim, when Savannah stepped into the house from the patio door:

"Savannah, you're all wet. What IS that? It's not raining so what happened? Did he PEE on you??!! Let me get a towel. Yes, that's pee! Saber, what's the deal, Dude?! She's old, not that you should pee on her if she were young, but still!"

And there you have it: That little exchange is nothing unusual at my house, and it hit me that it's the perfect lead-in as I introduce the current cast of characters under my roof that you'll read about here.

First-off, I suppose I should start with me, for those who don't know me. I worked in radio for 18 years, still do some voice-work every now and then and I never entirely rule out going back to that world if the right opportunity rolled my way, because I do genuinely miss it. Currently, I'm the Marketing and Events Manager for a fairgrounds. To be honest, I'll probably never write much about my job, as it's a government position and I think the safest thing to do is avoid going there. In my "other" life, I show dogs. It amounts to being an expensive, yet rewarding, hobby that obviously intertwines with my day-to-day life in a major way. I handle my own dogs, and often handle dogs for other people. I'm very involved with my own specific regional breed club, as well as an all-breed club that produces a giant dog show every year.

I'm single, never been married, and yes, I could probably write volumes about my perspective on that, but I won't....not now anyway. Seriously, I'm happy and feel fortunate to be where I'm at in my life. I'm blessed with a lot of great things that have come my way. If things work out with the right guy, I would view it as the cherry, on top of the sprinkles, on top of the frosting, on top of the cake. I'm willing to admit that I think time and experience has turned me into a cautious skeptic in the romance department, not one to easily let my guard down. But what do I know? Maybe it's still possible. I would like to think so.

Ah, but there IS the one great love of my life. Of course, he's got 4 legs and a tail. Saber is the oldest of the 3 Norwegian Elkhounds who live with me, and he might very well be what we call my "Forever Dog," meaning he's the one that's going to leave a lasting mark on me. There were 2 dogs I showed and owned before him, but he and I just have this "thing." He's very special. LOVES people, and is amazing with kids. He had a great show career and now is pretty much retired, coming out to shows every now and then to compete in the Veteran class. He just turned 9, and it scares me a little to think about how much I love this dog and how I'll handle the day when I don't have him anymore.

Next is the true Queen of the house who, honestly, runs the show: Savannah, the Miniature Poodle. "Vannie" or "Vanna," turns 13 in February. She was my "Townhouse Dog," when I lived in an apartment before I bought my house. I clearly couldn't have a big dog with me, but the landlord had no issue with Savannah. She, too, was a show dog, even before I got her when she was a year and a half old, but that ended when her breeder decided her coat couldn't handle the rigors of that extreme "do" the Poodles have to pull off in the show ring. That was fine by me, as I just wanted her to be my buddy, so she was spayed, her hair was cut down, and she went on to compete in Obedience earning a title in that. Poodles are smart beyond just about any other breed I've ever met. It's almost like you're dealing with a human on 4-legs, which makes them really fun. I always say Savannah may be small and cute, but she's really a tough talkin' broad. She's my little shadow, glued to my side when she's not sleeping.

The other girl in the house, my first Norwegian Elkhound female, is Paige. She's 5 years old and had a litter of pups sired by Saber in August. My relationship with Paige really had to evolve. All of us who work a lot with dogs comment often of how the boys are so much more cuddly and affectionate than the girls, and that you see so much more independence with the females, and it's definitely been that way with Paige. She simply likes to do her own thing, and for a long time I felt like she could take me or leave me, it didn't really matter. But I learned she merely shows her affection in a very different, much more subtle way, and my admiration for her grew by leaps and bounds watching her take care of her pups. As I write this, she's curled up next to me on the couch, sound asleep.

The most recent addition to the family is truly a "family" member. Aksel is the son of Saber and Paige, the puppy I chose to keep from the litter born in August. I had a rather unique scenario, in that I own both of the parents of the litter. Normally, after much studying of pedigrees, you go out to find the stud dog, and he could be anywhere in the country or the world, for that matter. But Paige was purchased by Saber's breeder to give to me to specifically breed to him. She essentially picked her out before she was born, knowing the pedigree was one that would go well with Saber's bloodline, and if a good female puppy emerged, she wanted to send her up here to me. The much-anticipated breeding happened this summer, with the pups arriving in August. The little guy who got to stay here and never had to leave home was Aksel. While I say Saber is the love of my life, I think his son could give him a run for his money. I love, love, love, this puppy.

There's another Elkhound named Espen who turns a year old in February and I co-own him with my sister, who he lives with. We'll get to him at a later date, but the four pictured are the ones who are responsible for me never having a dull moment in my life, who always give me someone to come home to, and who never let a day go by without making me laugh.

When I look back at 2010, it will be remembered for the very significant dog moments that happened. I lost my beloved first show dog, Maverick, just shy of his 14^th birthday. Just days after that, Espen came into our lives. Then over the summer the long-awaited litter of pups out of Saber and Paige got here on a hot August day, and I got my first experience at whelping and taking care of litter.

I'm expecting things to be a little more low-key this year in the canine category.

I say that as Savannah is trying to dry off from Saber's leg-lifting assault.

Low-key?

Yeah, right.

The Lid is Lifted

Happy New Year!

It's officially 2011. An old year is over. The first decade of the 21^st century is now officially over. "Out with the old and in with the new" applies in a multitude of ways on this day, and among them is this blog.

I started "Life With the Lid Down" back in 2008. Admittedly, it ended up being a half-hearted attempt, as I will be the first to raise my hand and say I really never threw myself into it with any focus. Oh, I THOUGHT I would find that dedication, but I learned you can't simply find it; you have to make the effort. As I write that, it occurs to me that lesson would apply in many aspects of life. More on that later, but right now, I need to credit the person who is primarily responsible for me taking another stab at this.

I worked in radio with Dave Bell many years ago, and I always considered him to be somebody who was a great mentor to me. Dave's been retired for a few years now, lives over on the coast in Wheeler and has his very own steamboat (is that cool or what? Well, actually the steam is hot, but you know what I mean.) Many of you probably know Dave without even realizing it. He's been, as he calls it, "The Audio Guy" for the Portland Trailblazers radio broadcasts since the very beginning back in 1971 and I promise you, if you watch the games on T.V. at some point in time, you saw the camera on the guy wearing the big headphones by the Blazers' announcers. That's Dave (and that's what I always say when I see him on the T.V.: "Hey, that's Dave!" Never fails.)

He gave me a surprise visit at my office a few months back (we still need to have that lunch, Dave) and he said, "I love reading what you write about your dogs." Dave was referring to the blog being linked to Facebook, or sometimes I just wrote a note on Facebook about something going on.

My response was, "Really? You like them?" Dave said, "Yes, I do and you really need to write more often. You have a way with words." I gave my usual excuse about lack of time, etc., but went on to wistfully say, "Wouldn't it be great to just be able to get up each day with nothing to do but write and have somebody pay you for it?" Dave laughed and replied, "Yes, all of us who like to write would love that. It generally doesn't happen for us….but then again, you'll never know WHAT could happen IF YOU DON'T WRITE!" Playing the mentor role again, Dave closed with, "You need to do it. I'll read it."

Great! One built-in reader! Seriously, though, Dave's words kept ringing in my head, week after week. Now granted, week after week I didn't write, but week after week I kept thinking about his encouraging words.

Finally, as I was giving some thought to other things I wanted to change in my life, I decided I would give it a serious shot, and what better place to begin than at the very start of the year.

I debated about saving the blogs I had written before, but the more I thought about it, I wanted a fresh start, and so much has changed since I last wrote in February and even more so since I started the blog back in 2008. There's a whole new cast of characters and it all warranted a new start.

So there's a whole new look to the blog, but I did keep the name. A lot of thought went into coming up with "Life With the Lid Down." For those of you who don't know how it happened, I was advised that if I was going to blog and rise above the multitudes out there, I would have to find my style and my focus, figuring out what my purpose is with my writing. As one starts to ponder that, in my situation it immediately becomes clear one theme will obviously override much of my writing, and that's the fact that I live with 4 dogs and I show dogs. No matter what I may be sharing in relation to what's going on in my life, the dogs will undoubtedly come up frequently. Consequently, all of that had to somehow be reflected in the name of my blog.

Suggestions included "No Bones About It," "A New Leash on Life," "My Life As A Wag Queen" (still like that one,) but nothing quite hit the mark. I started thinking about what my life is like with the dogs, and how it all comes into play when I juggle them with my career, spending time with family and friends, etc. No matter what I'm doing and where my brain is focused, the dogs are always an undercurrent. They always come into consideration. I recently commented to somebody about all of the things that go with living with 4 dogs, and how I don't even give those things a second thought, it's just part of the routine. For example, you never leave food on the counters. It's advisable to keep the bedroom doors shut (or somebody will decide to rumble around on the bed.) You always keep the toilet lid down to prevent it from being used as a water bowl.

Wait. That was it!

"Life With the Lid Down."

The hard cold fact is: No matter WHAT is going on that I have to deal with, no matter how busy I am, how happy, sad, you name it, I always have to remember every day to put the lid down. That applies literally and sometimes figuratively.

There are instances in life when the best option is to put the lid down and move on.

I generally don't get too swept up into the whole New Year's resolution business, at least not anymore. In most cases I've found it sputters-out after a week or so. However, I can honestly say I feel different moving into this year. I think it's because it struck me the other day that one decade of this century has now passed.

What? How can that be?

When I take a long hard look back at things from the last 10 years, and look at things now, something struck me, and I heard this voice (Yes, THAT voice. Doesn't everybody hear that voice, or is it just me?) Anyway, the voice asked: "Lisa, what in the hell happened to you? Somewhere along the line, you lost your drive. You've lost your focus. You let your edge get away from you. You've lowered your expectations. Face it girl, you're dangerously close to losing your mojo altogether and you should be ashamed of yourself!"

It's an interesting twist because I did accomplish the goal of getting in better shape by my 45^th birthday, but it was the goings-on in my head that got high-centered on some sort of speed bump. It's like I gained one thing but lost the other.

Well, not anymore. Things will be back in sync for 2011. I have no doubt in my mind about it. I already recognize the old familiar, calm focus. It's happening.

Be afraid…. Be very afraid.

Okay, I'm just kidding about the fear part. But it sounded good, didn't it? I bought these great tall black boots today and I just had a moment here where I envisioned wearing them, with a long black cape swirling at my ankles, forcefully stomping along with Darth Vader's "Imperial March" playing in the background ("Dum-dum-dum…dum-de-dum…dum-de-dum.")

"Alright, Lisa, do what your blog says, and put a lid on it!"

(There's that voice again.)

So, in honor of Dave Bell, there's the first blog for 2011, with more to come. There will be talk about the dogs, of course, the crazy goings-on at dog shows, and "The Things I Know For Sure about Puppies." Then there's how I can't eat gluten anymore and how it's resulted in me hearing the phrase "Can you eat THIS?" more times than I ever figured I would in my life. I'm sure my hatred of laundry will come up, and how I don't like to mow, but I LOVE the leaf blower.

Yes, there's an endless supply of topics

You doubt me? You shouldn't do that.

You don't want me to get out the black cape and the boots!