when the common thread is love, it all works

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Nancy Tanner

My husband and I had been together for about three years before we were married.

We worked, lived, traveled, and played together. He even convinced me that helping him with our house remodel would be a great adventure. I was young and game, and gave it a go. Why not.

We were learning about each other.

Spore learned that I like curvy, creative, and artistic lines. I didn’t mind paint splatters, I thought it made an area unique, and who doesn’t like more color? Uneven was interesting to me. I had no desire to create anything that was linear or square. It was the last remodel I was asked to help with.

We were learning about each other.

My very first gift from Spore was a hawk & trowel. I think he figured that plaster work might be my true calling? The second was a Husqvarna chain saw. And at what point does a man say, “yes a chain saw, that will be the perfect gift for her”. The third gift was a pair of hockey skates. I started to get the sense that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t learning much about me at all. While I accepted the gifts graciously, I had to wonder, what the hell?

But we were learning, yes this was learning.

I learned to appreciate his love of straight lines and all of the things he could build and make for us. He learned to appreciate my love of everything different, animals, gardening, and the food I could make for us. We allowed each other to be who we needed to be. And this worked.

We were learning. It was definitely a new skill set for the both of us.

It wasn’t until we started bringing animals into our home, and having children of our own, that we found our common thread. Compassion and love for living beings. We are different parents, he is a man parent, I am a woman parent, obvious differences I hope. He is about adventure, and freedom, and spreading wings. I am about home, and nurturing, and safety, and dam it do not jump off the roof, the snow is not that deep!

But we both love. We love our animals. We love our children. We love our home. We love our garden.

This morning I was reminded how deep this love goes. I called Spore to let him know that Franny ate something, the first something in almost a week. The joy and happiness on the other end of the phone was palpable. You would have thought Spore was just told that he won the freaking lottery! And then we went through our list of what we were grateful for. We have a lot, and it is between our house walls.

Sometimes I think it is easy to get wrapped up in life and really forget about the important stuff. And everyone’s important stuff is different I believe. That’s what makes things so cool.

My children and I had a great breakfast together and talked about their projects coming up. Ocean is sleeping next to me right now. $eeker and Story are waiting to go play outside and are resting with their toys near by. Franny is freshly bathed, has a little food in her belly, and is sleeping in her rocking chair. She isn’t walking well just yet, but she looks sated. I am stoked!

Nancy

East or North?

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Nancy Tanner

Easter is our time to get out into this beautiful world, and see it for it’s true simple beauty. We usually head North or East, there really isn’t an explanation or a reason behind this, it just seems to happen that way. This has pretty much been our norm for 18 years or so. No matter were we are living, Mother Nature never disappoints.

We start at home with an early Easter morning romp in the yard, breakfast, and packing.

If we somehow don’t leave until the crack of 10am or so, we stop at Mark’s in Livingston. Hands down my kids favorite!

We like to travel on back roads as much as possible. We find that we see more, experience newness, and it’s truly an intimate way to see an area. And you are guaranteed to run into something bizarre at some point. It’s simple, we open a map, find an interesting name of an area, and head there. We have never been disappointed in the adventure department, and always, absolutely always have a great time. We leave our day open to new options and detours. Nothing is set in stone.

This year we decided to explore the area around the Big Snowy and Judith Mountain ranges, and a little beyond. We’ve driven through on the highway for sheep herding clinics and things like that, but have never really explored the area. The Crazy Mountains were first, incredibly gorgeous.

We had some rain, lots of wind, gorgeous sun, and a bit of everything in between. We almost depend on this variability to be honest. Spore found a county road he wanted to explore, the dogs needed to get out, and the kids were ready to blast.

These are my 3 Musketeers! $eeker is always with the kids, and the kids with him.

We went through the Invenergy Wind Farm by Judith Gap. I wish we had more wind harvesting in this world. Montana has wind to spare, and it just makes sense all the way around. And personally, there is something about wind farms, when they are in motion, that I like.

Roadside lunch for the crew. Olive oil and rosemary roasted gizzards and organ meat. And then off for another walk in a new area.

Some of the places we wanted to go were up too high and it was still too snowy, so we pulled out the map and noticed that there was a State Park in the middle of this area, Ackley Lake State Park, who knew? Spore is a State Park junkie by the way, he feels that since we pay for them, we should visit them, appreciate them, and explore them. So off we went. What a treasure is all I can say. There was one, just one other car in the State Park while we were there. It was freedom, airing out, running, and playing at it’s best. This was a true find! And for about one hour the sun came out. Smiles all the way around. I can only imagine that this lake is packed in the summer time!

Beach parking, this was so cool in and of itself!

Franny ran and ran and ran. She enjoyed herself more than any of us I think. The soft ground, the openness, no stress, just running. I couldn’t stop smiling. Her joy was palpable.

$eeker won’t go swimming unless Ocean goes in first. If alligators don’t get Ocean, and no giant octopus tentacles reach up and suck her under, well then he considers the adventure all good and will take the plunge!

First swim of the season. This is Ocean’s true love, well really anything that puts her in motion is, but she LOVES to swim above all else. The windier and wavier the better! She will be 11 years old in just three months, and this girl still has such amazing drive and power.

Story. He is so true, honest, powerful, and present. And I think these photos capture HIM as I feel him.

Playing. We all needed it!

And then, we try to find some place that’s open for dinner. Harder said than done in super small back roads towns on Easter evening.

Spore and I have eaten in a lot of crappy little dives, on four different continents. We consider it part of the adventure and truly have very low expectations, and a pretty good tolerance for crappy little dives. There always seems to be some redeeming quality, even if it’s super small, and that is what creates that great memory. Maybe a great view, maybe a cardboard shack of a place but awesome food, maybe the food was inedible but the coffee was amazing, maybe a great fun server or eccentric cook, there is always something small that is great. Out of the way is fun, in the middle of nowhere you can sometimes find the best pancakes, food adventure is part of traveling in my book.

Spore and I agreed on the final stretch of our drive home, that the diner we stopped at in Harlowton, now tops our list of the crappiest of diners we have ever been too, during all of our travels, spanning 18 years together. That is saying something. There was nothing that was redeeming. Not the service, not the view, not the decor, and least of all the food. Again, we are not hard to please, it’s an adventure after all. You have to work at making us not like a place.

Was it a great Easter? Yes. Everything I love more than anything else in this world was packed into our car. A big mosh pit, my mosh pit. And we were out exploring little places in a big world together.

Nancy

snowball treibball

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Nancy Tanner

Well, it was a treibball afternoon in the yard. My husband and kids love this game with the dogs. While they were playing away, I decided to try some ‘moving action shots’. The light was kind of funky, it was snowing pretty good, and the wind was strong, but I love the motion…

my B & W’s … $eeker makes using a camera fun!

Spore and Story – they are a great TEAM. And the crappier, windier, and snowier the weather, the happier they both are…?!!!!

Spore and his TREIBBALL SAFETY GLASSES. On snowy days they are kind of handy!

I love this dog! Story is so powerful. I want to work, on a better light day, capturing his power, how it feels when you are out with him.

love this collection. $eeker loves this game!

And now for Mr. Happy Pants!

Loving our new snow, but now I am off to warm up … Nancy

my special kind of nurses

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Nancy Tanner

Bugger …

I don’t get sick often, but when I do I go down fast and hard. I must have picked up some kind of special messed up virus on my recent travels.

Yesterday I woke up, normal but a bit on the wonky side, and after an hour on my feet I realized things were not OK in my world.

The kids went off the school with their Valentines goodies, Spore to work, and the border collies and I at home. We all looked at each other for a brief moment, not quite the day we had planned.

My eyes were having trouble focusing, and because my head felt like someone was repeatedly beating it with a 2 X 4, and my stomach was on the high seas some where, I crawled into bed. But even that didn’t feel so good. Then the fever set in, yipee!

I don’t do sick well. I want my Mom and my Grandma to take care of me, even if only in thought. Comfort, caring, make me better. Wait, I kind of take that back. My Mom didn’t do ‘me being sick’ very well come to think of it. My sick days were something like “how are you feeling?”, “Mom I feel awful”, “well when you get a bit of energy here’s the bucket of cleaning supplies, the bathroom needs cleaning and the kitchen cabinets need washing and polishing”. Anyhoo, I want comfort, I hate being sick alone.

Thank goodness for my nursing crew yesterday! While they can’t get me tea, or make chicken soup, they offer comfort that goes much deeper, healing at the very core.

Ocean has a hard time giving comfort to anyone, she is so concerned for her own safety that me being sick can nearly throw her over the edge. ‘Dear God who is going to take care of me now’ was kind of the expression on her face when I crawled into bed. But she did give me comfort every time she came in to check on me, she gave me one kiss, whined a bit, and then went back to the couch. That effort is huge for her.

Franny has always been the one to stick by me when I am not feeling well. She either lays in her crate next to my bed, or is on my bed with me. Her presence is not lost on me. Even when the room is spinning at 100 miles an hour with a skull crushing head ache, she is my anchor.

Story my Sentry. So honest, so true. Mr. Integrity. He hops onto the bed and presses all 60 border collie pounds of muscle into my back. The weight and pressure is soothing. Better than a heating pad, hot water bottle, or warm rice & bean packs. And the added bonus is his luscious fur to bury my fingers in. When he gets to warm he will hop off and lay on the cool hardwood floor next to my bed. He did this back and forth all day yesterday.

$eeker, dear sweet $eeker. So intelligent, beyond words, so quirky, and so funny. He was my lightness of being to be sure. He would rest his chin on the bed and put his nose into my right ear. He has a noise making repertoire that he does very softly, from low growl to chirping, to clattering, to humming. Not sure what he was trying to tell me but it made me giggle, until my head split open with raging pain. So $eekers way of reminding me that pain is all relative, and there certainly is worse pain to feel, would jump onto the bed and slowly and purposefully walk across my chest and abdomen, each foot deliberately placed, and each foot supporting most of his 50 pounds of border collie weight. He would work his way to my left ear and then start his special language with me again. It was hard not to giggle, but the thought of him repeatedly walking across me was good incentive to remain silent and listen to what he had to say.

Did my dogs ‘want’ to take care of me, maybe, but I doubt it. I just happened to be the only game in town yesterday. As soon as Spore and the kids came home, I was alone again, and they were off playing.

It was the first day in a very long time where I literally could not get out of bed, oh I think I did once, but I crawled.

This morning I woke to four dogs, bouncing around, kissing me, howling, barking, and excited for a new day. Maybe they could sense I was feeling better? They make me smile, a smile that reaches the eyes…

I love them so very much… Nancy

tricks, this is where the fun begins!

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Nancy Tanner

Teaching and working on new behaviors with my dogs, ‘tricks’, is a huge part of my foundation in training. After all, everything is really a trick, isn’t it?

I teach sit, down, stay and come, the same way I would teach spin, twirl, bow, high five, and weave. I think the difference is how we perceive their usefulness. I’ll be quite honest, I use ‘in’, meaning go between my legs to the other side of my body, more often than any other behavior. Yes, and even more than sit or down. After all, our dogs do that all on their own, just fine without us

Ocean was 6 months old when she won a 1st place ribbon in a tricks contest, and there were 32 entries. I wasn’t training for ‘tricks’ at the time, it was simply our play, the way we engaged, how I trained for our relationship. And it was fun for both of us.

Story’s tricks landed him on The Martha Stewart Show, and I would have to say it was the least ‘useful’ behaviors that got the most attention!

All of my dogs give trick demonstrations at our local schools. It’s a great ice breaker for the bigger topics like responsibility, bite prevention, compassion, etc. And many of the ‘tricks’ are ones that have been dog driven, meaning my dogs have taught me the trick, and shaped the way I interact during certain routines. This is the part of the process I LOVE! We’re always working on something new, always! This keeps our home creative, which inspires me each and every day.

And we all know how important MATH is, so it is also one of our tricks! Happy trick training, happy time with your dog! Nancy

the super models of snow

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Nancy Tanner

OK, we had the most amazing snow last night, over 12 inches at our home. Big luscious flakes! And this morning, blue bird skies and diamond sparkle snow.

The sun gods were shining on my dogs while we were out working this morning. I had so much fun playing and photographing them!

My favorite… My Ocean.

Happy Winter, Nancy

snow dogs

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Nancy Tanner

Yay! It looks like Old Man Winter isn’t going to ditch us like he did last year! I swear he was relaxing in Tahiti last December, because we had pretty much the most ‘non winter’ season I can ever remember.

But today, finally, it’s snowing, and snowing, and snowing! Big beautiful heavy flakes. From my office window it looks like I’m sitting in a giant snow globe.

My dogs and I are drip drying as I type away, Franny might even be snoring. After a couple of hours outside, we’re all feeling pretty winter happy!

I’m still learning how to use my new camera. With the snow, the dim light, and motion, I had some good challenges. Because my dogs are gorgeous in motion I am still trying to figure out how to take quick multiple photos one right after the other. Any help would be great!

I can always count on $eeker to stick his tongue straight out and hold it for me. We call it the “Eddy Murphy, I gots some ice cream, I gots some ice cream…” If you are my age and were into SNL way back when, you know what I’m talking about!

My happy snow boy! His Highland nature comes out when the weather is stormy in anyway. He never wants to come in!

Snow flake catcher! If we don’t watch him carefully he works himself up trying to catch them all!

My gorgeous Franny. I love when she tilts her head up and lets the snow fall on her face. It has to feel as good as it looks when I watch her do this.

Waiting for meatballs to fly!

Caught this one just about right. I love this photo

And this one of my Highland boy… I almost caught the caramel color of his eyes. I have no idea how to bring that out more. Any ideas?

Another one of $eeker I like. It lightened outside for just a second… I love his brown coming through so nicely!

Lunch under the tree after a long afternoon outside!

it was coming down pretty good!

Time to dry off, drink something warm, and then head back out later on!

Nancy

walking the Grande Dames

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Nancy Tanner

How do you know when your teaching, training, and/or work has paid off with your dogs? How do you know when there is an understanding of a concept, or a behavior, important to the success of your team? How do you know when you and your dog have a mutual understanding, a relationship, a healthy functioning relationship?

This afternoon, when all seemed fairly quiet in the neighborhood, I decided to take the two Grande Dames for a walk. All three of us needed some fresh air, our legs stretched, and a bit of time together. Harnesses on, leashes clipped, poop bags in pocket, little baggy of left over turkey, coat, glasses, gloves, and ready to go!

I use to walk them together when they were much younger, but in recent years, I usually take one at a time, or one out with one of our male dogs. You see Franny and Ocean aren’t a good combination anymore, not in the past eight years anyway. They have had enough bad experiences while out on walks to last a life time. So they formed an alliance in a way, an alliance in the sense of, ‘take no crap!’ It’s like walking Dyna & Mite. Individually great, but together they can be fairly explosive, especially in an unstable environment, like in a neighborhood with off leash dogs. They really don’t want to engage with other dogs when out on a walk with me, and truly they just want to enjoy their time.

So off we went, it’s so special to walk with my girls, and I feel that every time I leave the house with them now. Franny has slowed way down, Ocean still has a great deal of pep in her walk. But they both enjoy sniffing and marking, and that we did!

Our walk was uneventful and relaxing the mile out from our house. Cool air, a bit of snow and ice on the ground, lots to smell. However, on the mile back things were a bit dodgy. I try to always take the path of least resistance. The girls, especially at their ages, don’t need any explosions, or the stress that comes with them. So we try to avoid conflicts. I will detour, wait, and sometimes even throw food at an on coming dog to keep them away from my girls.

So my original questions about “how do you know…?” Well, on our way home, the girls and I spotted two dogs behind a wood slat fence starting to fence run on our approach, and set up on us. Both girls stopped and looked right up at me! You could not wipe the smile off of my face. “Thank you” was the first thing that came out of my mouth, and then a piece of turkey for both girls. We crossed the street and kept walking, without conflict. When we crossed the street, a young black lab came roaring down it’s back deck stairs, into a yard, and right up to the fence we were just passing, and started to off load verbally on us. It caught us all off guard. Franny jumped sideways and went piloerect (and that was it which shocked me), Ocean gave that young dog a hard stare and low growl (and that was it which surprised me), then they both looked at me, “You two are freaking awesome today, thank you!”, a small piece of turkey and off we went, crossed back to the other side of the street once more.

I was so proud of my girls, and grateful for an almost conflict free walk. They had a lot of choices with the situations they were put in today. And it could have gone a totally different way. They have, enough times, made other dogs regret their choices for surprising them, again, when they are together it can be explosive.

We came home relaxed, happy, and filled with fresh air. These Grande Dames mean the world to me! May our walks continue …

Nancy

a recent session at our Dog Gym

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Nancy Tanner

It’s kind of a relationship thing.

I work with my dogs every day, and work holds many definitions in our household. It can be any variety and/or combination of dog sports, hiking, yard work, fetch games, play with a purpose, family room tricks, nose work, find its, etc. Always varied, always creative, always something that my dogs and I look forward too. And it’s everyday. My dogs deserve this from me at the very least. Besides work being exercise that we all need, it is also glue for our relationship, relationship in motion so to speak.

Our YouTube channel NANCYSPORE has a glimpse into some of the things I do with my dogs, I think I have over 180 public videos posted on there. Some are for my own reference, some to support our clients during their classes, a few are tutorials, and some were posted because of a request to see something in action. I’ve loved doing all of them.

Anyhoo… here is one that I posted last night. A friend that I met on line a few years ago wanted to see what’s up with my training these days ... Happy to oblige, we had some fun!

Nancy, who is grateful for great partners!

dogs that take, dogs that give, and those waiting to return to the Starship Enterprise

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Nancy Tanner

You don’t have to listen very hard to hear someone say, “my dog loves to please me, my dog is so loyal”, or conversely “I wish my dog was more loyal, I wish he wanted to please me”. I’m not quite sure the root of these sentiments, where is Chrysti the Wordsmith when you need her!

Personally and professionally, I’ve always found this a bit odd. Simply from the stand point of slavishness, is that even a word? Why yes it is, I just looked it up! The sentiments tend to suggest a dog that see’s and feels nothing else in life, but it’s owner. Ego? I don’t really know.

Now I have seen that butter soft Golden Retriever, with big beautiful brown bedroom eyes, They appear to melt into their owners, follow them around adoringly, look deep into their owners eyes, UNTIL, the rabbit goes by, see ya! Pit Bulls can be the same. I’ve seen Pit Bulls look like they want to crawl inside their owners skin they love them so much, they just can’t get close enough, can’t get enough contact, can’t look into that human face without turning into a virtual jelly bean, UNTIL, the ball comes out, THROW IT!

Is there in fact such a thing as a loyal dog, a dog who is genetically pre disposed to pleasing another species? I don’t know. I think more than genetics it is the rare pairing of just the right dog with just the right person, and magic, it happens.

So here is my current line up of dogs. This is who they are and what they came to the planet with. I love them for who they are, not what I need them to be.

Franny – She is my partner, she is not a taker, and only a giver every once in awhile. She does not require me to support her emotionally or physically, she has good confidence, and great instincts. Franny does lay next to me when I am not feeling well or when I am particularly tired. She likes to check in with me, particularly in the evenings. She has a slight guarding quality so she will step in front of me at home if there is something outside that causes her concern. She has never done anything that I am aware of, to indicate that she has wanted to please me. She’s more of a ‘keep up if you want to hang with me’ kind of dog. A true partner, trust on both ends for us. But this has taken time!

Ocean – She is a taker. She was a spooky, low confident puppy. Timid, fearful and extremely cautious. Her whole life has been about us supporting her emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She comes to us for comfort, but does not give us comfort. She comes to us if she is afraid, so we can reassure her. If I am having a bad day, stressed or concerned, she leaves the room. She is not capable of handling emotions from anything or anybody, outside of neutral. If we were out hiking and something hit the fan, she would take off running, and expect me to deal with it, she would not be there to help me out. I/we take care of her, she was never born with enough grit to support, please, or be loyal to anything.

Story – He is my giver and my partner. He is my gift, plain and simple. He stands next to my side and I can feel that we are in this together. He allows me to love him and work with him, and I allow him to love me back and push me to be a better person. On a low day he will come and comfort me and nuzzle me. He looks out for me when we are hiking, and always keeps an eye on me, always. He is my one dog that will stop and wait for me to catch up. He will allow me to lean on his back if we are going up a steep hill, and he will step in front of me and stop if he is unsure of what is coming down the trail. If he is frustrated with some new sport we are working on, he lets me know, he does not obey anything or anyone, it’s about fairness for Story. He has integrity, grit, and kindness all wrapped up into one dog, but he expects the same from everyone he encounters.

$eeker – he is not a giver, a taker, or a partner. I am still so up in the air about my dear sweet $eeker. He lives in a world where sometimes we just don’t get each other, I don’t feel he is present, or I feel he is present with the other voices in his head? This morning on our hike he was amazing, playful with me, attentive, and I could feel him wanting to be with me. Other days I’m not sure he even see’s me. To be honest, I think we are all his little experiment, and one day I am going to turn around slowly, and catch him whispering into his shoulder, “my work is done here, beam me up Scotty”.

Nancy

Nancy Tanner

what keeps me moving forward

Category Archives: MY DOGS

when the common thread is love, it all works

East or North?

snowball treibball

my special kind of nurses

tricks, this is where the fun begins!

the super models of snow

snow dogs

walking the Grande Dames

a recent session at our Dog Gym

dogs that take, dogs that give, and those waiting to return to the Starship Enterprise

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