Bratty Corgi, and some Border Collies

Pixel NQ'd both trials this morning! What a brat!

The first trial was really great- lots of pep and she was working pretty well. A little laggy on the figure 8, but not too bad. I was stoked- she never has trouble with the stays. Until today. She SAT UP on her long down. First time ever. When I left her I did think to myself that she didn't look as settled as normal but by the time I realised- it was too late to do anything about it.

And then of course the second trial was bumped up to before the break and we were up in less than ten minutes. Not so good for a Pixel. In hindsight I should have just cut my losses and went home. We struggled the whole way to stay connected and keep her up. We NQ'd our heeling. lol. Which is usually her best thing. So after that I helped her as much as she needed. The judge didn't say anything except that'll cost you. But we'd already failed so whatever. lol.  Oh, and I should mention she did stay for that trial- her usual rock solid little self. Brat.

So now we will wait until Fall- Reddeer or Lethbridge. Probably Lethbridge- no travel, or hotel. I'm all about saving money these days!

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In other news we are having a great time at Phantomridge. When I got home at noon the dogs and I had a nice long walk, and then a nap in the airconditioning! I spent some time playing with Louanne's dogs. And of course took some photos!!!

Remember Gus? Well he's almost all grown up and has turned out to be a great little dog. He is happy, fun, and sweet.

Isla is the Queen of the place, and is a super cool dog. She is all serious when it comes to work, but bring out a sheepie tug toy and she turns into a lunatic. LOVE HER!

Mack. AKA Crackers. He is a dog that is just training at Louannes. He is super cute, and a little crazy. ;)

Random Lamb. <3

and one more of Isla all crazy like. What a neat dog!

 Oh, and I didn't get any photos of Meg, who is a SUPERSTAR (she just won Reserve Champion at the Stampede Stockdogs).  Although she is Super Star she apparently hates the camera and wouldn't cooperate at all. I will try again tomorrow.

Of course I worked Brit today. ;)
 Brit hasn't seen sheep in a few weeks now and she was pretty pumped. We had three small training sessions today- about 15 minutes each and spread between 2 and 8pm. We worked on outruns mostly. She is really starting to bend out on her own now- which is nice to see. I'm anxious to get some lessons started again though as I really have no idea what I'm doing. lol. It's mostly guess work and I don't think that's very good. Our last session we did some work on our flanks- me behind her and I tried to get her to drive the sheep straight away and just gave her the flanks if needed to keep them straight. Surprisingly it wasn't a catastrophe! She did pretty well until the sheep started running and she couldn't resist bringing them back to me. She is quite confident these days.

Tomorrow I will head home in the afternoon. I'm going to squeeze in a nice long walk with the dogs and one more bit of work with the sheep. Then back to real life!

A weekend of favourite things!!!!

Pixel and I are headed to an Obedience trial tomorrow morning. I've got her entered in two Open trials- she only needs one more for her CDX. We've been working on our fronts so I am hoping for some better understanding on her part. I will be thrilled if her improved fronts make it to the ring!

She is on early tomorrow morning, and then late morning again. Hoping to be done and outta there by noon.

The dogs and I are also packed up and headed to Phantomridge to dogsit/housesit for the weekend! I am pretty excited- for two reasons.

Reason #1- SHEEP!!! Louanne is going to leave some sheep in the training field- So I'll have lots of opportunity to train.
Reason #2- PUPPY!! Baby puppy Boo is staying home so I'll get lots of puppy cuddles and fun in while I'm there.

I've got my camera packed- a video camera for Obedience, and my real camera for puppy and sheep photos. ;)

This is going to be a great weekend!!!

Swimming Lessons for the Boys

As predicted the boys swimming didn't go as smoothly as the girls. Don't get me wrong- they both enjoy paddling around and on occasion Vito will take the plunge and fetch something. But mostly they putter around and watch Wicca do all the work.

I was smart and brought some yummy roast beef to bribe Vito to at least try. He managed to perch on a rock and it took some pretty big chunks of beef to convince him to get off. But he did, and I think he even had fun! At one point while I was playing with Boone he swam over to some reeds and started chewing on them. 

They got a work out at least, and after we did some land fetches, and I let them putter around on shore and roll in gross stuff. It was an enjoyable afternoon at the lake!

This photo cracks me up. lol. He was hanging on to the rock for dear life. Until the roast beef came out...

What Vito really thought about swimming...

Looking for Sharks?

Swimming for Roast Beef!

There are no "swimming" photos of Boone because I feared for my cameras saftey. lol. His swimming style is uh, not very graceful...

He fetched the toy though! As long as he could touch the ground!

Doing what Boone does best, poking and pawing...

I brought Wicca along and let her do two long swims. She was pretty happy about that!

Swimming Lessons

The only one of my dogs to actually swim out and get a toy is Wicca. I've lost plenty toys when it goes just a bit too far and the dogs are like- no way, you go get it. So I end up either going back to the car to get Wicca, or watching as the toy drifts farther and farther away.

So today I took Brit and Pixel to the lake and worked with both of them to get them swimming out to a toy and bringing it back. I went in with them we worked on going farther and farther out until they were both reliably fetching regardless of how far it went.

We all had a lot of fun- I got to cool off, and Brit and Pixel had a great time running around and playing in the water. I'm excited to go back tomorrow with the boys. I'm guessing their lesson won't be so well received. lol.

Both Brit and Pixel look super clean and fluffy now too so it will look like I actually bathed my dogs by the time the week is done. Yay for swimming. ;)

And I thought to take my camera so there are even photos of the event!

This is how Fetch in the water usually goes with Pixel...

Brit goes out to get it and brings it back

Pixel steals it as soon as she can touch

and the princess steals it...

Swimming.

More??

OMG I'M GONNA DROWN...

Concentrating.

Brit tried to steal the toy... Corgis do not share well.

Two happy, wet dogs. :)

I Surrender

A single smile goes a long way 27/52, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

This past week has been long, hard, etremely busy, frustrating, and all of that makes for a very cranky Amanda. Thankfully it's now Sunday night at 9:30. And this coming week should be signifigantly better.

I am so ready for holidays though. How am I going to make it all the way to August...

Let Loose

Sometimes you just gotta let loose a little bit. 

Boone is a pro at that. He knows how to shake off stress and move on. 

Maybe I should start rolling around in the grass after a bad day?

Stuff

thanks Tammy for the great photo!

Go Dog Go put on Agility and Scenthurdle Demo's on Canada Day and it was a pretty fun day. Long, but fun. I ran Vito in the Agility until my foot was too sore, and he had a great time! Speedy and very cute. I also ran Brit once and she was confused so I didn't do it again. lol. Her A-Frame was good but she was like "what tunnel?"....Brit redeemed herself with the scenthurdle though and did great! Running down to a full box like a big kid!  The most fun was that Wicca got to do Barrel Racing!!! We figured that she could handle that- running around a barrel shouldn't be too hard on her. She had a lot of fun, and of course went as fast as she could- beating even Mr.CrazyKelpie Pike.

I was thrilled when on Monday she didn't seem stiff or sore at all. And then very sad when on Tuesday morning she was noticeably uncomfortable. Stretching, and rubbing on doorways. I gave her a half dose of metacam because I didn't want her sore in her crate all day... Sarah gave her a massage after class that night and found her shoulders and ribs were sore. It's crappy and makes me sad.  Wicca feels better today after the massage though- so that's a good thing. I'll keep an eye on her and maybe get her another massage this weekend sometime.

In other news I lost Pixel this morning and thought I was going to have a stress induced heart attack. We had some serious wind last night, and I didn't notice the back gate was busted. I put the dogs out after breakfast, and went to call them in and no pixel. Thank GOD Boone stayed in the yard. I can't even imagine going through that again. But I was pretty worried about Pixel. She is so cute- what if someone found her and kept her? That's all I could think of. I mean she is adorable. And would go to anyone with food...or the promise of food. Thankfully I found her after only 20 minutes of frantically driving down alleys yelling for her. She was a few blocks away eating someones garbage. It is the worst feeling- helplessness. Needless to say the gate has been fixed and has a new latch which will have a clip on it just to be safe....

This weekend is our Kennel Club's CKC Agility trial so there has been much prep for that. I'm not running a dog and weirdly enough I am not even that sad about it. Maybe as I course build all day I'll wish I was running- I'm actually kind of hoping that will be the case! lol.  My Lethbridge friends and family should be sure to pop on by and bring me a coffee, or candy. I'll be there all day Saturday and Sunday...

It seems like I've been running around like crazy all week. The trial combined with the kid camp thing that Sarah and I are doing, I am exhausted and  stretched a little too thin. Next week will be more relaxing. Stampede Stock Dogs Monday, and then Obedience Trial and Sheepherding on the weekend....Okay, so maybe relaxing isn't the word to use. lol

Happy Canada Day!

Be Proud of your Roots.... 26/52, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

from the gang at manymuddypaws ;)

Spots

Summer!!?

Summer may have finally arrived. We actually had some warmth yesterday and no rain. It has been raining off and on for the whole month of June. So bring on the sun!!!

I finally brought out the dogs little pool and Wicca was kind enough to help me fill it. She likes the hose a lot and will run around the yard spraying the other dogs (and me). It's a good idea not to get too close to her. lol.

I've been looking online for deals for a big pool- an actual swimming pool so that the dogs can swim. The river is unpredictable, dirty, and well often inconvenient. If I had a pool in my yard big enough for the dogs it would be awesome. Good therapy, exercise and FUN! I've found some on kijiji- but nothing quite what I was looking for. I am going to go scope them out at Canadian Tire today.

This weekend is the Canada Day long weekend- we are doing Agility demos on Sunday so that should be a lot of fun. Wicca gets to come and run barrels! I am excited, and nervous. lol. It's running in a clover leave pattern so theoretically she shouldn't break. Pixel and Boone are going to stay home. Boone was going to come and be the star but with all the thunder we've had this week, combined with the random fireworks last night and he's a bit of a mess. And Pixel isn't ready for agility anyway so she might aswell stay home and keep him company. Vito and Brit will be the demo dogs for the day. :)

I have a little spotted visitor for a few days. Halo is a 5 month old Dalmatian. She is uber cute, and is keeping all the dogs on their toes. I will try and get some photos this afternoon to post. Puppies are cute, but spotted puppies are the cutest!

Monday marks the first day of Go Dog Go's (me and sarah) participation in a Horse 'n Hound camp. Yes- I will be working with children. I must have been having a bad day when I agreed to it. lol. Hopefully it will be fun- we've got some good stuff planned. It's only a few hours a day for a week- how hard can it be?

For My Wall

Sarah took this stunning photo yesterday when we went out to AltaPete. 

I love it. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to get it printed for my wall. 

this one is also fantastic- but the sky in the other one blows me away. 

p.s yes, I know I said I wasn't going to go. But I managed to get my house mostly clean in the morning, and squished in brunch with my sister AND then as a reward went herding. :)

Don't take life too seriously.... 25/52

Don't take life too seriously.... 25/52, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

Via Flickr:
Vito's Life Lessons #25

Don't Take Life too Seriously, there is always someone poking their tongue out at you.

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Vito is a pretty serious dog- for about 49% of the time. The other 51% is spent doing funny things, and making me laugh. In this photo he was concentrating so hard on the sit stay that he couldn't hold his tongue in. lol. It made ma laugh, and it had to be my 52 weeks photo this week. ;)

Practice Makes Better....

For the past few months I've been trying off and on to get some good "herding action" photos. I've seen some pretty incredible photos, but have yet to figure out how people work the dog, watch the sheep, and get photos. But I still try now and again.

This morning Brit and I went out to AltaPete early- I wanted to be able to take my time and not rush. The sheep were very difficult last time Sarah and I went- it was impossible for us to keep the sheep from running back to the barn. With no gates and a huge field it is a little above our skill level. lol. (and by our, I mean the people not the dogs. lol)

So this morning I worked the sorted sheep in the round pen a few times before taking them to the field. This gave them a chance to settle a bit. And then all the way to the field I kept in front of them and Brit hot on their heels. It worked well and we didn't have one run back to the barn!

We worked on driving- and our outruns. She still struggles with staying out long enough. We worked mostly on our come bye side as that is the weaker side for sure. I stepped in each time, and threatened her with my stick until she would bend out more. She was starting to get it near the end. It was a good session with lots of work- her favorite part is the driving. She really settles in now.  That's how I got the below photo! Probably my best actual herding photo to date!

Style.

Walk Up.

Steady.

Driving the Ewes and Lambs to the small pasture for sorting.

Outrun. On Balance Even!

I'm not sure. lol.

Settle.

I probably won't get out again until next weekend. I really need to spend a day at home and clean, and sort, and throw crap out. So that's what I'll be doing on Wednesday this week. I'm sure I'll be thinking about sheep though. lol.

The Penguins have landed!

I'm dogsitting my friends dogs for a few days- Scamp and Neena.  They are both super easy to have around- and they fit right in with my guys. I fostered Scamp actually- and I am happy to say he is doing awesome. He is a very happy guy- who has really blossomed with Jen's love and patience. 

With 7 dogs in the house I have to walk them all in shifts- so today I took them all to the field and ran them in pairs. The Border Collies together, Two Shorties, and the Boys. It worked pretty well, although I am exhausted now. lol. 

Getting all three of them to look interested was a challenge. Brit looks beaten. I promise she isn't. lol

the very cute Scampers! 

 Pixel- who was excited to be able to run free like a real dog! 

 Vito is looking very mature these days. 

 Wicca!! The toughest Corgi in the West. :) 

And Boonie! Who is sporting his new 'do. I was trying to grow his coat out. But wearing the Thundershirt all the time lately made for impossible hair problems... I gave him bell bottoms. lol.