Shedding Season and Weasel Ran Start in Practice

Ahhhh, Spring!

That wonderful season where everything is budding and erupting, waking from winter doldrums. The tulips burst from the ground, the buds burst from the trees, the songs burst from the birds.

And the hair bursts from the dog. Great masses of hair. Everywhere.

Ordinarily, I love the Spoiled One's coat. It's that nice teflony, glossy, straight coat of a german shepherd dog. He can be coated with muck, but a shake or two and it's gone. Until the seasons change. Then, I pay my dues.

You see, he sheds. Molts. Sloughs undercoat in huge cloudlike masses. I strip great wads of dead hair from him on an hourly basis. He finds the process a bit annoying. Weasel is overwhelmed with jealousy at the attention Spoiled One receives, and her head keeps getting in the way, wind from her tail whipping back and forth sending the cloudy mounds of stripped undercoat flying. Of couse, when she's being brushed, Weasel's head gets horribly jealous of whatever other part of her is being brushed and tries to get in the way. Jealousy is sort of her thing. . .

Anyway, we did practice this weekend. It went well. The puppies and new dogs are coming along nicely. We need some little height dogs, but there is a promising cattle dog/sheltie cross. One of our main team members with three dogs is moving to Texas, so were having to refigure out team line-ups. Weasel did well passing and did not cause as much trouble as I was anticipating with her idol dog. She had a bit of a problem veering off the first jump when running second, but did fine running first. Spoiled One still intimidates the dog running after him, so that it veers off or slows down rather than meeting him nose to nose at the start line. At this point, though, it really isn't his fault. He isn't doing anything naughty, he just gives off an "air". What can I say, he's a redneck dog.

Now the dogs are resting peacefully. Spoiled One has one eye open, watching me in case I decide to pull more tufts of hair. Happy Shedding Season!