Secret says, "Christmas Blows"

Yup, that's pretty much Secret's opinion of Christmas this year. Last year was pretty cool because she got to go places and meet people, but this year was pretty crappy.

The poor dogs were more or less bored out of their minds and cooped up at home from Thursday evening through Tuesday. I picked up holiday shifts at the shelter, so I worked half days on Christmas Eve & Christmas, followed by going to family events in the evening. Secret & the boys stayed home because my brother & his family were up from Chicago and brought their two dogs with them to stay at my parent's house. Joy. I didn't really feel like messing with that situation, so I figured my dogs were better off staying at home. Poor dogs. :o(

Due to the hectic holiday schedule, we have done diddly squat in the training department! No theraball work, no basement agility, no trick training, no nothing! Really, the only activity they got over the last few days was "dark frisbee" (which really, they are very good at!). Secret is not terribly good at playing dual frisbee while Luke is in the yard, though. She mostly just chews on her disc during that time, so eventually I have to put Luke in the house so that she can have her "me time" and be happy. She's such a diva.

The dogs didn't get totally scrooged out of Christmas. Inspired by a fellow blogger (http://fulltiltbordercollies.blogspot.com/) , I hit up Walmart and cleaned them out of Sock Monkeys last week. Now, when I say, "cleaned out," I mean three -- Because that's all they had. Thank goodness, one for everyone.

Of course, do you think everyone got one? Not so much. Luke ran laps around the couch for a while with one in his mouth. Kaiser took it and promptly dropped it. And Secret? Secret de-stuffed them all -- The first within five minutes. And that, my friends, is why I do not let my dogs have stuffies in the house.

"Grandma" (my mother) also got them all stuffing-free toys with squeakers. Guess how many squeakers are left? If you guessed zero, you are correct. Again, I'm pretty sure they were all missing in under 12 hours. I found three. I'm guessing the other three must have passed through Secret's digestive tract....

The dogs were fairly happy about getting Kongs five days in a row. There definitely weren't any complaints in that department!

We are leaving shortly for Eau Claire for our lesson with Deb Erb!! I am beyond excited. Secret was full of beans on our walk today, so I'm hoping she is the mood to play tonight (and doesn't suffer massive stage fright). Time will tell. She'll have Rascal & Kaiser there as a security blanket. It should be fun!