joe randel's art dump

So wanna know what I did this weekend?  My wife and I packed up our Beagle Bernard and took a trip to Toronto to be a part of a dog training event.  The 2 hour class was taught by Brad Pattison host of the show At The End Of My Leash, a show where Brad helps those with problem dogs.  He’s a great teacher and knows what he’s doing.  He has 20 years experience in training, teaching, studying dogs, wolves and coyotes.  He’s a non treat trainer and not only looks down on the trainers that use treats to get results, isn’t afraid to tell you.  In fact that’s the guy in a nut shell.  He’s very up front about… well… everything, and I find that very respectful.

So the class went super well.  We learned about keeping the dogs attention, about making sure the dog understands that the people are in charge, and most important, just learning how teach and be consistent with our dog.  We already do all the tips that he shows on the show and Bernard is doing extremely well.  He still has issues but now he doesn’t pull on his lead where before he would literally be pulling us all over the flip’n place and nothing could get him under control.  He would bark at other dogs no stop and pull like crazy and now he doesn’t pull although he still makes little noises huffing noises, he doesn’t bark.  He also sits at the snap of our fingers.

It’s very rewarding to have dog that listens and respects you.  Our relationship with Bernard will only get better from here on out.  My wife and I can’t speak highly enough about Brad and his show.  If you have a dog and need to get some training in, seriously use this guys techniques.  They work, but you have to put the time in to it (like anything) and it won’t happen over night, but you will get results very quickly.

He totally get’s my two thumbs up.

The other day one of my daughters fish passed away.  We knew it was going to happen as he’s been hanging around the bottom of the tank for a while now and not swimming much.  Then not swimming at all.  We told my daughter that Piggy Fish (that’s what his/her name was… because he/she usually ate most of the food) was looking kind of sick and that he might die soon.  She under stood but hoped that he/she would get better.

The day the fish passed was a hard one, she’s never had to deal with the passing of anything.  We later talked about death, that it’s okay to die, it’s okay to be sad and that every body passes someday.  I bought a book a year ago or so called One More Wednesday that deals with death.  It’s about a little bunny boy that goes to see his Granny every Wednesday.  They bake cookies and play games but then one day the bunny boy can’t go to his Granny’s anymore.  We get to read about his questions about death and it helps make the situation a bit softer.

She asked what was going to happen to Piggy now.  We told her that I was going to bury him by the gathering of trees in the front of our house.  She asked if she could be there and if all her stuffed friends could be there too.  I said sure.  I made a small box for Piggy Fish and we decorated with stickers and drawings.  She was very happy with it ^_^  We buried Piggy between two trees in our front yard and mark his/her spot with a large pink rock.  She wrote Piggy Fish on it with a marker. ^_^

My daughter is doing better now.  She asked if we could get another fish to keep the Scaredy Fish (that’s the name of the other one) company.  So now we have Big Ed the fish.  She still talks about Piggy Fish and misses him but I believe this was a very healthy experience for her.  It’s good for her to understand these things now in her own little 5 year old way.

Yeah… that was a sad day.  But if I was able to get over me losing my Pheobe Beagle, then she’ll be just fine ^_^

Note:  I’ll be gone for the weekend so no posts until Monday ^_^

Hey… I forgot to ask this question in my turkey day post.  Are you a white meat or dark meat person… that is if you eat meat.  I prefer dark meat.  It tastes much better in my opinion and I’m the only one in the house that likes it so I get all of it Muhahahaha!  Not that I don’t like white meat but so many times I’ve had dry as a bone white meat that I’m almost fed up even trying it.  Although my wife made a great white meat this year.

The secret…

Cook your bird upside down.  Seriously.  That way the breast meat stays in the juice at the bottom.  You bird will look super ugly when you take it out finally but the meat will be so much better.

Trust me ^_^

So today I voted in the Canadian election.

Looking at the US election vs the Canadian one it’s crazy to see the differences.  The biggest is that the Canadian elections will never be as sensational as the US ones.  Our elections can be called at the drop of a hat and parties only have 36 days to campaign.  There’s no big count down years ahead of time.  No huge build up to the final election.  It’s just straight and simple, go put your “X” on a card and drop it in a box.

How did I vote?  Well, I find it hard to make a decision because you’re voting on the parties ideals and what they hope to have changed, but chances are those changes will never come about (unless it’s a majority government… boo!).  But if you don’t vote, then you can’t say anything about what the government does.  You decided not to have an opinion so when the government decides to make absurd laws, you can’t say anything because you opted not to have a voice.  At least you could put your vote in to another lesser party to take votes away from who you don’t want to get in.

Anyway.  Yeah, I rocked the vote.  It’s a good thing to do.  It’ll help to shape the country.

Looks like we’re going to have another Conservative Minority government.

Okay, so yesterday was officially our Thanksgiving but I’m talking about it now.  Why?  Well, I always love turkey on turkey day but it’s the days after when you have days and days of cold turkey sandwiches, turkey leftovers, turkey soup, mashed potato and stuffing sandwiches… and on… and on.  I really don’t mind all the leftovers.  I still love turkey days later until it’s all gone.  I wish pie would last longer though. ^_^

So what all did we have?  My wife made a turkey (duh!), mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy, and an apple crisp for dessert.  Oh yeah.  I especially have to commend my wife’s stuffing as it came out perfect.  Stuffing sucks when it’s too dry and is gross when it’s too wet.  Over salted stuffing isn’t any better and that stove top crap can stay on the shelf.  Nope, my wife makes a perfect stuffing.  To bad you guys can try some.  You’ll just have to take my word on it.

I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow.  Delicious.

So today my daughter got a splinter in her hand.  It’s not a horrid splinter but it is in kinda deep and so it should come out before it’s infected.  So there I am in the bathroom trying to get it out in the least possible way and there she is literally screaming at the top of her lungs like I’m sawing off her fingers… and I’m not even touching the splinter.  I couldn’t help but laugh.  It’s bad… I know.

Now I’m not laughing at her.  I’m laughing at 1) the absurdity of the situation and 2) because I remember one time when I was a kid and I got a splinter and I told my Mom… and man, it was the last time i ever did.  My Mom got tweezers out and a needle and I flipped out too, just like my daughter did to me.  After that, if I ever got a splinter, I never told Mom.  I just worked it out on my own.  It hurt hardly ever if I did it myself.

I didn’t get my daughters splinter out.  This was at bath time and told her that I would try and get it out tomorrow.  I’ll give her the option of having me do it or let her do it.

Man, it’s so funny to be on the flip side of these situations sometimes.  ^_^