Happy Wicca

Wendy took a few photos at the show this weekend. She had to leave before Pixel's turn so there is only Wicca. I love the expression on some of them. Wicca is such a fun dog to work with. :)

at the start

that's quite the air she's got there....

past the dreaded food bowls

getting ready to celebrate.  (can you hear the bark that's about to come!)

Thanks Wendy!!!! 

Mr.Pointy Nose

Awesome Corgi Girls :)

I couldn't be happier with my dogs this weekend.

Because it's the most exciting I want to talk about the Scenthurdle stuff first. Our team raced on Saturday night- just four dogs, no alternates. And they were awesome. Like a switch went off and the dogs just got it. We did a few things differently though- which likely contributed to the dogs focus and understanding. First we made sure not to volunteer for the race before ours. This gave us time to have our dogs out and for some of them to watch and get excited. Second we had a practice before- just a few sends to the box before the races started. I think it helped our dogs to know what the job was. We were succesful in more than half of our runs. A few oops but nothing major. I am very proud of how hard my team works with their dogs. We race again in two weeks. On that note Pixel (along with everyone else running on Saturday) earned enough points for her SHD title (Scent Hurdle Dog). :) Yay for team No Nonscents!

Rally went well- the courses were challenging which was nice, with lots of little tricky spots. I like it when the course makes you think. Wicca was entered in two runs a day- Advanced and Excellent. She needs to qualify in both each trial to earn an RAE leg. After earning TWO legs this weekend she only needs one more for her RAE. Which is pretty awesome. She has qualified in each combination she has been entered in, and often with placements, or even High in Class. This weekend she placed Third (tie for second but just a tad slower), and Second. No Firsts this weekend for her. Although this afternoon in Excellent she would have had a PERFECT SCORE, had I been more careful with my 1,2,3 Steps backwards. Apparently I only did two steps. So we lost ten points for that. Her other scores were great though- 98's.

Pixel earned the last two legs she needed for her Rally Excellent title! I am so proud of her. She is the cutest, happiest dog in the ring and I just love that. Yesterday she scored 90something (I can't remember. lol), and today she earned a 99! and HIGH SCORE IN CLASS in the Excellent B ring!!! Wooohooo Pixel! She still is a very immature dog who has lots of learning to do, but wow I am just so impressed with my little fluffy dog. After this weekend Pixel will be focusing on her Open skills. No more rally for her until she has grown up a bit- The RAE system is way too expensive to worry about wether or not she can handle two trials back to back. At this point she couldn't for sure. I know my dog, and I like to make sure that my dog is ready mentally for what I'm asking her. So it's back to training the broad jump, fronts, finishes, and heeling. Sounds fun eh? :)


So that's that. An all around good weekend that mostly was pretty awesome. The show site is beautiful- the obedience/rally was in a covered "outdoor" skating rink. It stayed cool all weekend, and was far from the busy show rings. Jolene and I travelled together and as always it was a hoot. She just may be the funniest person I've ever met. lol

Lake Monster



a curious border collie



the menacing lake monster



the slightly stupid border collie being "brave"

 

the very scary lake monster on the tail of the once brave border collie...

this lake monster is always victorious



the border collie may never recover. lol



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on that note, the corgi girls and I are off to a rally trial this weekend. Wish us luck!

OMG

OMG 28/52, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

seriously funny.

BFF's

Brit and Kort are best friends- they play, wrestle, chase, and bite each other. It's a very balanced relationship. :)

I met with Jo to do a bit of training this afternoon and we let Brit and Kort play for a bit after. Brit is super funny and leaps and spins in the air beside him as they run. It is pretty entertaining. Kort just thinks she's the best thing ever, even when she gets a little too pushy.... She is a girl afterall. :)

Princess Pixel Fluffy Pants

 These photos are from the Scenthurdle races a few weekend ago. This dog is SO cute. Even from behind. :)

Beginnings

This is Tina. She was my very first dog, and to her I owe everything.
She was the reason I got "into" dogs.
She taught me to persevere, to never give up.
Tina was a decent obedience dog, a mediocre agility dog, but was my best friend.
And when you're a lonely school age kid those are pretty rare.
She was a pretty awesome dog, and I will never forget her.

We got her as a family pet, to replace my guinea pig Lucky (whom I was VERY attached to. lol) She was a horribly behaved- jumped on the kitchen table once while we played a board game, ran away, chewed our toys, and never listened. I took her to Obedience classes through a school program and it changed my life.

She was a tough dog- and never gave an inch. She was stubborn, very independent and had dog aggression issues. She was trained through to Open/Utility but was a mixed breed so couldn't compete. We kicked butt in fun-matches though! She was my first agility dog too- although never made it out of advanced. We kinda fumbled around together. :) We even played flyball although she never did learn to stay in her own lane.

But she ignited that spark, that desire to learn about dogs and how to relate to them. Without that I am not sure where I would be at this point in my life. I owe her a lot and thought a blog post was in order.

So, who was your beginning? That first dog that triggered your love (and obsession) of all things dog. Blog about it and post in the comments. I will add your blog to the post so others can check it out.

Never give him a hose...

My nephew Nolen is a water nut. You can't keep him out of the pool and trust me when I say never, ever give him a hose. He has great aim for an almost three year old.



his mad face. (the expression you get when you tell him no. lol)



drying off with his mom's help.

Easily distracted. Nolen loves bugs and was thrilled when an ant ran across his foot.

driving his little car. Soon he will be too big for it!

I am lucky to have my sister and her family love so close. I get to see Nolen as much as I want. I've learned that Nephews are lots of fun, and now that he is able to communicate more it is getting to be even more fun. He is such a boy though, already! He is super dirty all the time, likes bugs, and robots, and dinoosaurs... lol I can't believe how much he has grown in the last little bit, and with his "big boy" haircut he looks so handsome.

I am going to be an Aunt again sometime today- My Brother's fiance is having a baby girl today....hopefully anyway!

Livin' the good life...

Sleeping in, staying up late, lots of walks, training, and playing. The dogs are exhausted each night after spending most of the day running around. It has been a fantastic week, and we are all sad to see it end. But the break was great and I feel rejuvenated. I have awesome dogs, and I love them all to bits. I also have awesome friends- thanks so much to J & D for letting me (and five dogs!) crash at their place for a whole week. We are very lucky.

Here are some photos from our walk today. Well, I sat on the ground and the dogs ran around.

The "hunter" in the middle. I don't know why but this photo cracks me up.

Wicca has been searching for critters all week and hasn't found any until today.
She heard the chip at the same time she saw the hole and was possessed. lol.
She was digging like crazy. It was funny (and made for some great photos!)

Pretty (but very bratty) Pixel...

this may be my favorite photo from the week. although it's not in focus really (and I had to soften it to make it look okay) I still love it.
Vito has the biggest feet ever, and can run when he wants to. This was his very enthusiastic recall towards me as I lay on the ground.

Brit, in passing. She doesn't stay still much. She has definitely gained some muscle over the week.
 I am going to try very hard to bike with her every day when we get back to real life.
The running has been SO good for her.



Wicca, daydreaming about critters.



this is her expression when you say "gopher" lol

and Boone was off doing his own thing. He has really been enjoying the freedom. I swear he is like a wild dog sometimes, and would happily go off on his own all the time if he could....

Among the land of Shelties...

My friends have four cute little shelties- it is interesting to see the interactions between the dogs. I find that my own dogs (particularily the corgis) can be quite snobby to dogs and mostly tend to ignore them. The Shelties are much the same it seems.

Brit likes dogs, and tried to make friends with everyone. Only Flash would play with her though.

This is Flash. He is just 9 months old and is a very happy, bouncy, outgoing little guy.

Wicca ignores everyone. She is the ultimate snob.

Flash again, because he is just so cute!!! He is also quite the ladies man and loves both Brit and Pixel... 

Pixel is properly submissive to the cranky shelties, but doesn't put up with boy dog crap from Flash. She is a very good dog, dog.

and Poor Boone. Tries hard to make friends but dogs just think he is weird.

BB is the boss. No one messes with her. Even Wicca.

Vito likes to pretend the shelties don't exist although really doesn't like Flash. lol

Pearl pretends to be tough, but is really a chicken. :)

And I haven't managed a photo of Star yet! She is totally attached to her mom and is never far enough away for a pic.

 

What we've been up to...

yesterday I spent an hour or so driving around looking for good, safe river access. Today I hit the jackpot and only a few minutes away! It is on private property so I asked permission and the landowner was happy to let the dogs swim. They had a blast- Wicca's limp is completely gone but I am still not letting her run full out or swim too much so no fetch. But they paddled around, and enjoyed the cool river water.

Ever feel like someone is watching?! Brit is supposed to be on a Pixel free diet. But that's rather impossible here....

a good roll in the sand makes all the worries go away. :)

lots of good smells

boys are annoying. lol

and odd. Boone saw this boulder under the water and pawed and barked at it for 15 minutes...

Brit knows the best way to cool off..

happy dogs :)

and you'll notice my new header. The color version is nice, but too much for a header. Not sure I like the sepia much either thought.  I am not as happy with it as I thought I would be but it'll do for now. :)

What a weekend!!!

Am I ever glad I booked my holidays for after the long weekend.

Friday was Canada Day and Go Dog Go did agility demos all day at the main city park. It was a LOT of fun. All of my dogs got to play in at least one thing- Brit even got to do Barrel Racing. :) Saturday and Sunday was a local CKC trial. It was a small trial thankfully, but I worked my butt off and was exhausted and more than a little cranky at the end of it. Remember my post about volunteers last week? Ha! I don't do much CKC so I didn't know quite a few of the people. The lack of volunteering was annoying, and really slowed down the day. There were a lot of people who sat around and did nothing. I worked almost every run I wasn't running in (and I only ran in two events a day!!) In any case, I was happy to help the club out (I am a recent member) but will have some advice for them for the next trial....

I only had Wicca and Pixel entered. They are both in Intermediate, and we only ran standards. I am trying to stick to a budget so a $300 agility weekend was not happening... Pixel ran great- she Q'd in 2/4 runs. One run she had an off course, and the other a missed contact and a refusal. That dogwalk is gonna kill us. But I was VERY happy with her speed. She was fast! Like more than a trot around the ring. Her weaves were pretty good. Only one bobble in four runs so I am happy.

Wicca Q'd her first run and seemed to LOVE the 4" jumps. I want 4" jumps in AAC. LOL. And then in the second run she came up lame. :(

She didn't send out to an off angle jump so I resent her- she spun and rolled her foot. Of course I didn't see that until after I watched the video. She was VERY hurt. Wouldn't put weight on it at all. I was pretty upset. I iced her, and let her rest the day, and kept her home Sunday. Thankfully she started to walk on it by Sunday night, and Monday. Today you hardly notice it- she would like to run 100mph already but I am keeping her to a walk...

My holidays have started- the dogs and I are settled at friends south of Calgary. We are just hanging out at their acreage for the week. It's nice. Today we are going to find the river, and I am going to Okotoks to do a bit of shopping. I'm going to need some more books. I read a whole one yesterday afternoon/evening...

Oh, and I slept in until 9 this morning. :)