The Helper

This month and next month we'll be re-doing half of the backyard.  Part of the process includes moving the dog kennels so that they're facing the house instead of being against the house.    In order to move the kennels to their new spot, a retaining wall needs to be put up to shore up the hill it's against and also elevate the kennels above the ground.  

PoongSoon was very curious about what we were doing.   At first, she would just observe from a distance, but then she got closer and closer.

Whatcha doing?

She started to stick her head in my way.

And then she started to mimic me as I patted down the base for the retaining wall. 

Her efforts were very cute and humorous, but unfortunately, paws aren't very good for creating a level base.  I thanked her for her help and then asked her to move to the side. 

You missed a block.

Yeonsan Ogye, the Black Korean Chicken

Found this as I was browsing through a link about unusual chicken breeds:

Photo by Lee Seong Woon

According to feathersite.com,

This is an ancient Korean breed, known from back in the time of the Middle Ages. Today it is mainly bred in the Chungcheongnam-Do area of Korea.

Its most notable characteristics are the black skin, eye, comb and bone. It has only the normal four toes. Males weigh around 1.7 kg and females around 1.2 kg.

The following is the description attached to the picture:

Yeonsan Ogye is the cock which has been bred in Korea since before the times in the Joseon Dynasty Ages.(Joseon Dynasty : The country which there was in Korea in A.D 1392~1910)
It is appointed to the 265th Korean natural monument and saves it.
The Korean animal husbandman do not understand it in detail for the origin of this cock.
However, a name called the O-gye appears if I watch the book(book name : Jaejeong-Jip) which a which is a Goryeo scholar(name is Lee Dal Chung, A.D 1309~1385 ) wrote of the times in the Goryeo Ages(Goryeo : The country which there was in Korea in Middle Ages.)
When They(Korean animal husbandmans) look in this, this cock is supposed in having entered Korea Peninsula before in the days of the Goryeo Ages.
Yeonsan Ogye is the record that a person called "Lee Hyeong Heum" lived Yeonsan, Chungcheongnam-Do in the Middle Ages of Korea, presented a which is the 25th Korean King(King name is "Cheoljong" A.D 1849–1863) for the first time.
It(Ogye) is April 1, 1980 that it was appointed to a natural monument and it(Ogye) is in Hwaak-ri, Yeonsan-Myeon, Nonsan-City, Chungcheongnam-Do and save it now.
The characteristic of this cock is comb and eyes of a black, skin and the bone of the ash black. a toe is 4, and it is a characteristic that green black feather.
The cock of spots(When this bred emission in old Korea, The gene of a Korean native cock done a crossing of was manifestation.) and the white(it is mutation) is born once in a while, too.

For ten minutes, I thought about the possbility of getting a few of these chickens for my flock, but then I read the regulations behind importing the chickens from Korea to the US.  Pretty much impossible for live chickens, and very, very difficult for hatching eggs.  I wonder if these barriers existed before Avian flu virus came onto the scene.

Lake Hodges

A view of the east side of Lake Hodges after BokDol hauled me up the tallest hill.  Picture was taken on my so-so camera phone.  This area was hit by the Witch Fire in 2007.

PoongSoon's [2nd] Puppy Graduation

Yesterday PoongSoon had her graduation from Puppy Socialization from Hidden Valley Obedience Club.  Like before, I dragged my dad along to take some pics.  He took some pictures before class started.



PoongSoon and I returning from taking a potty break before class.



The Rally Practice Area for Adults

Puppy Field with mini-agility

It was supposed to be a fun day with wrapping up testing for AKC Puppy Star and playing on the agility course.

I think we passed the AKC Puppy Star?  I'm still confused on that matter.

I was looking forward to running the agility course.  PoongSoon has always done so well playing with the pieces individually, and she wanted to jump on the equipment before class.

Jumping onto the Dog Walk at the wrong place

Walking on the Table

I actually had to pull her out of the tunnel since I didn't have a spotter.

The same went for the tetter-totter.  I pulled her off since we didn't have a spotter.

During the actual agility run though, we hit a hard balk.  One that I didn't expect.  There were two hula-hoops on the ground where pups were supposed to do their sits and downs.  Now, PoongSoon absolutely does not like hula-hoops at home, and she gave a hard balk once she saw them on the grass.  She sat down and would not move on.  Bribes weren't working.  Tugging on the leash wasn't working.  Skipping the hula hoops wasn't working.  I aborted her run and she was very subdued for the rest of the hour.  Just laying down with ears low and tail down.

It took a very determined Aussie a good ten minutes to pull her out of her funk, and then she participated in one of the other competitions.

"Watch me" competition

At the end of class, she got a pile of stuff.  Two toys, a bag of assorted treats, a HVOC certificate, a dog tag, and a dog medal.

Near Miss

BokDol almost got the black rooster when the rooster escaped from the coop.  Fortunately for the rooster, BokDol misjudged and only got a few tail feathers.

The girl dogs had fun playing with the loose feathers.

BokDol Adopted.................................... by me

I finally decided to make it official. I'm adopting BokDol.  My friends are already teasing me that I've joined the "failed foster" club.  I protest, though.  Can it really be considered a foster failure if I started off with the "foster-to-adopt" in mind?  :-)

Here are some pictures of BokDol after his bath on Saturday.  

 

And here is him lounging today.

He doesn't know yet that I have plans for him.  We'll be attending obedience class in a few weeks and I'll be introducing a backpack on him.

He'll also be my chaperone dog to this teenager here:

Translated Jindo Videos

Here are two Korean videos about Jindos that have been subtitled to English.

This one is a soft intro to Jindo dogs,

And this one is a harder-hitting video that was produced by the Korean series PD Notebook on Dec. 5, 2006.  The video is broken into 6 parts: