Dog Training: Waiting……….. | Pawsatively Handling

A beautiful day in Yoder, Colorado

Hi Friends!

I have been waiting. And waiting. But itâ€™s my own fault that I have had to wait. Or at least my 55 year old body is to blame. When we reach a certain age things seem to start falling apart. I have reached that age I guess. Not that Iwant to acknowledge it but itâ€™s too much of a reality to ignore.

I had an emergency hysterectomy at the end of 2011. That had me waiting back then. Waiting to get back at dog showing, fairy garden making and life in general. It did allow me to do some things that I donâ€™t usually have time for, like reading books and sleeping and just spending time at home with my family. It wasnâ€™t too bad and I didnâ€™t have to wait too long to fight my way back into my normal routine. About 5 or 6 weeks really and it wasnâ€™t much problem because back then I had my son Timothy to do all the lifting and animal care here while I rested so I could heal. At the time we were also waiting for Danny ( Kerry Blue Terrier GCH. Tontineâ€™s Chance Redemption ) to heal too, from his rattlesnake bite.

GCh. Tontineâ€™s Chance Redemption

So that made my dilemma a little easier to deal with. Neither of us could go to dog shows and all the other dogs were very young so they had time before they really needed to get in the ring. I decided that since I was going to be home we would have a litter. We did and it was, and is, a beautiful and successful litter. Two are finished and four more are showing and on their way.

So, I figured that 2013 would be a great year. Danny was healed and better then ever. I was feeling good and we had accomplished some early shows and some really nice wins with Danny and his pups and we even finished a couple of dogs for clients. Things were going good, life was moving on!

I was busy showing dogs, raising several hogs and 19 turkeys and even started a garden. I had made several more Fairy Gardens and even was able to finish some art projects. Then it all turned around.

Happy hog

I suppose maybe I should have taken more time to heal last year. I thought I took plenty of time, so did the doctor. In fact, so did everyone. It might have happened when I was loading 1200 pounds of hog feed into the large silo feeder. Or maybe when I was lifting large planted Fairy Garden pots. Maybe when I was lifting and wrestling with Black Russian Terriers for grooming. Who knows. At one point I could feel a small lump in my belly. Within a few days it was bigger. Then a week passed and it was bigger still. Time for the doctor. Well, apparently the incision from the previous surgery hadnâ€™t heeled like we thought. The internal incision from the hysterectomy had opened up and let some of my intestines go exploring. I had a large incisional hernia. I needed another surgery. I had that surgery on the 21st of June. As you know itâ€™s now August, August 8th to be exact and so I am waiting again due to another surgery. Thankfully this time Danny is just fine. No snake bites and everyone else is fine too.

Some of my garden

My surgery was done laproscopically. I thought that would be easier. It isnâ€™t. The doctor told me it would be 12 weeks before I could return to normal activity. And even then he says he would rather I give it more time than that.

Another of last years litter, heâ€™s training for performance titles

I canâ€™t. I donâ€™t have that much â€œwaitingâ€ in me. I have work to do. I have things to lift, animals to feed, dogs to groom, dogs to show. I want to lift large pots of soil. I want to carry my own stuff, load my truck or van. Get on the road and do my job.

So here I am, waiting. I can do little things like putter in my garden harvesting the fruits of my hard spring time work. I pickled some beets. Something I have never done before. I made Zucchini bread and I have been cooking every day which I do enjoy and have always enjoyed. Itâ€™s just not enough for me. I really want to design and plant Fairy Gardens. I want to feed the pigs and turkeys without having to ask Bill to carry the bags of feed. And I want to get back into the show ring and escort some dogs to their championships or to nice breed/group wins. I want to make some income so I can do all the things I want to do. Nothing is free, not even time.

While sitting here thinking about having to wait to do the things I want to do I began thinking about patience. I think I have a lot of patience.

My turkeys and chickens

I have patience with dogs, dog training, dog grooming. I have patience when I am cooking, when I am watching my garden grow. I have patience with kids ( most kids ). I have patience with people ( most people ). I have patience loading pigs into a trailer. I promise you, it is much easier with patience because you really canâ€™t force a pig do do

I pickled beets for the first time

what you want it to do, it will do it in itâ€™s own good time. I have patience when just waiting ( like doctor appointments and such ) and I even have patience in traffic or waiting in line at the store! What I donâ€™t have patience for is waiting on me!

I canâ€™t stand not being able to do my own work. My own lifting! I have no patience waiting to heal! I am trying my best. Everyone helps by telling me I had better be patient, reminding me that if I donâ€™t heal now I will be waiting at some other point trying to fix what I could possibly undo now. I have always been the patient type, except when it comes to sitting around. I have never ever been the type to sit around. It was work as a teen to be able to â€œsuntanâ€ at the beach, it usually lasted about 10 to 15 minutes before I was on the move again. I love to read but I usually read late at night when I canâ€™t do anything else.

One of my fairy Gardens

So here I am waiting. Trying to be patient and all the time finding things I can do. I am reminded still when I over do with pain as a result. So I suppose until there is no pain upon chores being done then I will be back to normal. In the last several weeks I have finished a miniatures project. I finished a miniature garage to go with the miniature house I

My current project Fairy Door

finished during my last recovery from surgery. I am currently making a new Fairy Door that will go live in South Dakota next week. I do have a new Fairy Garden planned for this next week too. My house is cleaner than normal and Bill actually complained about dinner always being ready as soon as he walked in the door. He asked me to change that up once in awhile. Who would have thought!

I am hoping to be back at some shows in September or October. I need to find some shows with judges that I want to show to and maybe class competition for the class dogs I will have. I am hoping to start grooming dogs next week, a couple at a time at least.

My Mini garage

So as I wait and try not to do too much too soon I think about all the things that I would love to be doing and count my blessings that that time will come again for me, the time to do the things I want to do. I appreciate the ability to do as I want, do things for myself and do things for others.

I hope you are healthy enough to do as you want, to do for yourself and to do for others as you want. Count your blessings every day and tell those that you love how much you love them. Itâ€™s all the little things and all the good people we have in our lives that we need to appreciate and need to love to make our lives whole. I love my life, even when I have to wait on my old body to heal again.

With love and appreciation,