I Love my Agility Classes in Cuenca by Star

A few weeks ago we started our agility classes with our awesome teacher, Lily Goodale. We are now practicing at her house and we are having the best time ever. Of course mom has the hand coordination of an elephant, the poor thing! She can't get the hang of the clicker, treat, leash and so on, and confuses the daylights out of me; but we still have lots of fun together.

Agility is all about bonding, about paying attention and about focusing. I've learned to really pay attention to mom when we are at the beginning of the course. I only make a mistake when she does, which is too often.


I love the jumps the best.

Our agility equipment is home made but I wouldn't know the difference. I do miss the A frame though... it used to be one of my very favorite obstacles. And then... there is the seesaw... not my friend at all... here we are all trying to get used to the movement with miniature ones... it's not working for me. I don't like the noise and the movement.

One of my favorite things about agility is that I get to practice it with my friends. Maly is one of Caty, my super groomer, many dogs and she is really good. Chimbo is one of the Goodale's pack members. He's just a puppy and is Adrianne's dog. He is very smart and lots of fun; and like me, he loves the jumps.

I can't wait till Friday to go back and practice some more. Cuenca's beautiful sunny mornings are perfect for doing agility.

Practicing Yoga in Cuenca by Star

Moving to Cuenca, Ecuador meant that mom couldn't go to her yoga classes at One Center Yoga in Asheville, NC to learn from her incredible teacher Cindy Dollar. Mom was all sad about this loss, so I told her not to worry since we could practice yoga together in Cuenca. After all, I do the perfect Downward and Upward Dog poses; remember when I showed Java the other day? I figured though that I needed to learn a few other poses if I was going to practice with mom regularly. I know mom learns a lot from her Yoga Journal magazines, so I decided I should study too.

Mom says that in addition to the perfect Downward and Upward Dog poses I do a flawless Mountain Pose... even my jaw is relaxed, and mom tells me this is a good thing which I confirmed by reading mom's Yoga Journal magazines.

Mom and I have lots of fun practicing yoga. I've tried to do head stand with her, but I have a bit of trouble with that pose so I created my own. Mom says it is not Iyengar approved, and I have no idea why... I call it the Kissing Upside Down Face pose, and it makes my mom laugh a lot.

A month ago mom found an Iyengar teacher here in Cuenca; her name is Lily and she taught kids in Maine. Mom is thrilled; and, although I can't go to yoga classes her, we continue our regular home practice together. And the best thing is that Lily is also a dog agility trainer, so mom got a yoga instructor and I get an agility trainer, all in one person. I can't wait to start my classes. Mom and I feel blessed.

All the little pieces are falling into place and we can truly call Cuenca home.

Mom, Can You Please Read? --- A Park in Cuenca by Star

When my mom choose this house to rent, she was told and saw that the largest park in Cuenca was just five or six blocks from the house. So as soon as we got here mom had to show me this park. When we got to the park mom saw the following sign from the street.

Of course, she didn't bother to get closer so she could read the sign, instead she interpreted the picture and decided dogs were not allowed in the park. WRONG! Mom was really annoyed and went on and on for a long time about why wouldn't they let dogs in the park. Two days ago mom and I were walking again, and she decided that perhaps she could see an area where dogs were allowed. As she got closer to the sign she realized that had she read instead of jumping to conclusions she would have known that it's only dogs without a leash that are not allowed in the park!  This of course makes perfect senses, except for all the street dogs. I wonder if they can read the sign and know that hey don't have a leash, so they don't go in. Hmmmm... I will observe and report.

At any rate, mom was elated to find we could go in and discover this place. And so we did! I was so proud of her for trying once more. Look at me, this is my "I'm proud of my mom" face.

This is a park, I'm telling you. It's called El Paraiso (Paradise), and a paradise it is. It's a very big park. Lots of sports fields for kids to play in, a duck pond, lots of green space and trees and flowers, and of course the river. It's a real special place and I'm sure we'll be going there every day.

This park is so big that we may be able to find a place to play ball off leash. We saw some dogs doing that. It will be awesome to have a place to run, that's one thing I really miss. Mom told me she may try to see if they can dedicate a space to a dog park. Who knows! What I would really love to see is some real agility equipment. Mom makes me jump logs and rocks serve in place of the table ... it's a joke really, but I go along with her. I miss my agility classes, my doggie friends and my agility teacher, Robert. He was the best. Maybe I can get him to come visit. I'm not the best agility dog there is, but I have fun. My classmate, Dancer, on the other hand is something else. I loved to watch him go. He is wild. Boy I sure miss agility. Hopefully we can find a place where we can practice here.

Now, I thought you would like to see for yourself how beautiful this park is; so, I've included some pictures below.

And, of course mom had to take a picture of the ducks....

So boring... I just had to yawn ...

Until the next report... keep away from the ducks.