bcgirls

Well the courses were pretty twisty turny Friday night and some on other courses.

Kitt made it thru on the skin of our teeth with a bar down before the WP. Standard Q 2nd pl. Sat no q’s Kitt came out of the WP’s early on both courses (I suspect I was not driving hard enough) Gem came out of one of them as well. Sunday-Kitt Dbl Q #15….we’re going to make it !

Gem, poor little dear, can’t hold a contact to save her life. I must say if I were doing running contacts with her they would be pretty cool! BUT we are not …lol.

She has figured out her start line pretty nicely lately, just need to reel her back a bit on the contacts.

Walking off for 2 days helped but had little affect on her. She is such a naughty fun girl!

I sent her off course on Sundays JWW course, a part of the course pass thru twice and of course one obstacle was different each pass, oh well she was listening nicely.

Still no lameness for Kitt, pretty cool! I do suspect she is not free of any tenderness but nothing she shows even after a full 3 day USDAA Regional weekend!.

Weather was lovely this weekend and Sunday was a welcome relief of being overcast.

Tai is with us till next Sat. he and Gem play so well together, its like the younger brother older sister thing…that is tom boyish older sister. They ran, looped thru Argus’s big grass field both hanging to each end of a 3’ stick just running in big circles, it was pretty cute. Tai is older by 6 weeks though.

Several MACH’s to be had this weekend and lovely ribbons WSOTC had for them

I will mention Jill Crawford’s JJ has one DQ to go for his first MACH!

Seems like forever since we have done an AKC trial. I am actually looking forward to the 3 day event at Argus starting this afternoon.

The hype that is in USDAA “air” sure is not the same at AKC trials. For me and probably many others it may be just because I am not running around to be in various rings at seemingly the same time.

Not walking 3 rings at once. I find the energy level to be much lower which actually I am looking forward to, for one weekend anyway.

It sure is making qualifying for AKC nationals difficult by not running them though, oh well..it will happen or not.

Kitts pad blister from last weekends activites is not fully mended yet, but good enough to play for 3 days with light activity in the down time.

 
Did anyone see the USDAA news section on Humility? Interesting stuff from various points of view and stages of abilities. Yes I'm in there, it sure was scarey giving permission to post those kinds of thoughts...lol...oh well part of the personal growth.

Good Luck all if you are playing, Tai gets to come stay with me for a week so Gem has a boy to boss around for a while, smiles.

Well my headache improved 3 fold on Sunday, I could laugh and smile again and not so serious on little Gemmers mistakes.

Andrea’s mid evil neck or pressure point contraption seemed to really take the edge off, plus some other herbal remedies, It was nice to get some sleep Saturday night.

I arrived a tad late for Kitt’s gamblers run time, but they squeezed me in at the end, very nice of them. She ran well but no Q. A little tricky weave gamble. Gem’s Advance class had the same gamble, opposite tunnel entrance which made it harder but she got the gamble and ran out of time due to a realignment at the start of the gamble.

Still not doing well on holding contacts maybe 50%...no that’s too high. Just not where I wanted to be going into Regional’s in 2 weeks. End behavior on plank work for two weeks I guess! Kitt could use some as well.

Gems Advance standard was technically clean but self released on her DW after pausing so I asked her to sit, and those that know her know that is no easy task when she is in “Gem drive”. Blatant release on the teeter so we left. Her teeters are awesome slam down to the end at a terrific speed and decent control.

So basic issue, a stay problem!

More stays at new locations, strip malls, shopping centers other new places the next two weeks. Her start line did improve on Sunday so that was great! She gave me a taste of what it will be like in the future with a few weeks were she was doing awesome at trials. Like a “junkie” I want more…patience, I must show patience and train…lol

It was very fun to get a 2^nd place Q with Tai in Advance standard Sunday, and Gem did get a 5^th in Steeple Chase finals with an error. So not too many clean runs apparently on that. She or I am $9 richer…total winnings for Gems $29 to date for miss Gemmers.

Always more dog training to do.

Gem & Echo who are 3 weeks apart in age beat out there mature dog mates, Kitt & Ceilidh in R2 of Steeple Chase kind a fun. 

I keep telling Andrea that if Echo (who took 6^th pl) & Gem were teeny boppers in High School what their friendship would be like…”spark, laugh, spark, cry, awh I’m sorry lets go to a movie”. Echo approach’s low with lots of face licking and twisty of body posture, Gem says stop that and leave me alone with a lick, lick snap behavior. Echo says oh let me try again…smile, kiss, kiss….Gem says )*&&^^^%^& and gets rough. It would be an interesting after school skit…lol and lots of Gem in the corner till recess. They are funny for sure.

Ended the OR road trip in Tacoma at a Mexican restaurant with Lisa to drop Tai with her, nice food more of a fancy mexican atmosphere but new dishes and appetizers so that was very nice. Andrea and I told the weekends agility stories to Lisa and Tai shooting straight out of tunnels and not looking back to see where his handler was, we enjoyed that story several times!  Tai's was actually the easiest to run of the 3, when they stop on contacts it makes it so nice to get where I need to be to run it well.

Kitt, Gem both got massages from me last evening before I went to sleep...they were too tired to return the favor.

Must go now and have more coffee....
 

Thursday

I down loaded an audio book (per Lynn Chase’s recommendation, thank you so much, Robert Crais a character series) for the trip to OR this weekend.

Currently I am listening to the “Lost World” not realizing it is the same Jurassic Park movie series when I ordered it. Well Lost World has not been easy to get into…until the Englishmen were being chased by the red skinned, haired short stocky ape like men…finally into it now and still on Part I of II. So plenty to listen to while going to and from Prineville or is it now Redmond for the USDAA trial! Looks like a lovely fairgrounds. Last year in Prineville was simply beautiful and the surrounding scenery is just breath taking…it is this that, is really drawing me back and a needed GPrix q for natl’s!

Currently I am at Lisa’s B’s house sitting. Loaded up my weeks worth of stuff and hauled it all back to Argus last evening except for the needed weekend items. Cleaned Lisa’s place and packed the dogs in the van and took off. Unloaded at Argus and then went straight to Flaming Geyser State park. Kitt just loves this place, the other dogs do too but something is extra special to her about the freedom she feels there…very endearing.

Tai was new to the bunch and did very well of course. They spent less time in the water than usual, ok less intentional than I was planning for the dogs seemed to make it happen regardless. A few fishermen and a couple on horses back…that made me a little nervous. Not sure about Tai’s reaction and concerned about Nikki. Both paid no attention to them…the water and sticks were near by…phew.

We walked the perimeter slowly, the dogs just run dove into thin grassy path areas to go down to the water and come back all wet. Just near the end we, they came upon some fly fishing type. Thought we would be disturbing to their fishing plans and didn’t not let the dogs hang out in that vicinity long. The fishermen seemed not to notice us, the water is high and fast where they were but along the edge its fine for the dogs to get themselves wet and wade thru the water though.

Headed home to Browns Point and stopped at Dairy Queen…I was so engrossed in “Lost World” I passed by the order window, too funny. It took 30 minutes for 3 cars to go thru. When I got to the window most were standing around while 3 worked, oh well.

Sugar is at grandmas and grandpas.

Got home and since the house had been cleaned before I left all I did was sit down…sweet. Then I popped in “Benjamin Buttons” movie and watched the whole thing from around 11 till it finished. My eyes are sleepy this morning not a smart start for a long day of driving.

Catching up with JB, she’s at Fido’s playing today then heading south to the trial.

Stuff from a single person…

Have a great weekend

Blynn

I can’t express (well I could but fluidity of words and grandous gestures are something I am not good at..lol) how fun it is to run two dogs that enjoy the game as I.

Thinking of Kitt makes we well (ok I know I got a little miffed when she couldn’t seem to keep her body in the weaves for Snooker, but its short lived) up that her little toe injury has been uneventful for 4+ weeks now since she has been on a soft tissue, joint product called “Repair” from Enzymedica, Super Supplements carries it and an individual from the store had just finished up attending a product, company review and was very impressed by it and suggested it. Granted she has had a few things done to help her out…but this is the most recent and most affective to date. She is 1/3 way thru her 2nd bottle, so pretty darn quick results.

http://www.enzymedica.com/

There have been a few things like chasing a cat (again) across the gravel at Argus and increased exercise that would typically have caused her to be tender toed. But nothing.

4 runs a day would typically have caused her to be a bit sore….no zip naughta this weekend and not after two days of 4 runs. Nor at Fleet feets trial a couple of weeks ago.

Hard to imagine her living another 8 years (her grandma will be 17 in July) or so being sore and or without the needed exercise for her mental well being.

Contacts are in need of training…can’t seem to get by without that in our tool box.

Kitt earned a team qualifier for nationals and a 3^rd Steeple Chase Q at RHR.

Gem, did wonderfully for a little munchkin. Consistent as could be and earned a needed 2^nd Steeple Chase Q for Nationals with a 4^th place in the finals. She aided her team well this weekend. She just did a bang up job, missed one AF contact in Team standard and pushed AF’s in Steeple Chase…so will be working to recover those this next month.

Hope all enjoyed the weather this weekend it was beautiful. Things ran a bit laaaate on Sat. and Sunday had equipment delays in the am. A good trial run for RHR Regionals coming up here in a few weeks.

Later, Blynn

It was simply perfect…

I entered one day and Saturday began with AKC in Graham and only Gem was entered since I’ am trying not to run Kitt on back to back weekends that include USDAA (too many runs to keep her well). Since Fleet Feet and RHR are on either weekend it was Gem and I running…ok I ran Flirt as well since Kathy S had to go to Texas for family.

Gem picked up her 1^st double Q!!! or official DQ, she had one when she was in A, B classes but as you all know those don’t count.

Sat’s Std run I hardly watched any of it and was not well placed flow wise thru the course and it showed. I called her fairly hard off the chute and she responded like a mature dog, pretty cool.

She got stuck on the table getting into the down position but we got a Q.

JWW was pretty fun in the sense that I layered the jump after the poles and a fairly sharp angle and the little darling stayed in the weaves and kept the bar up afterwards on a delayed f/c turn. A wide turn here or there but she performed like a little trooper.

She also picked up another Open FAST Q, I gave her a very poor approach to the AFrame, I over shot her on the approach and she came off the opposing descent side but the crowd said she touched the yellow (I didn’t think she had) we paused for a moment. I know it was my approach that caused it…but she is a little thinker and pausing will help her understand that something different would be appropriate for the next awkward approach that I give her. She’s smart and will figure it out…I hope.

Flirty and I well we tried, in std we got to 4 + obstacles left on the course to perform and she left in the weave poles too much to run without her mother around.

JWW we had fewer obstacles completed but she came to me after the run, FAST she did pretty well and came to me again at the end so that was all good.

It was interesting that she did not finish Std because she pulled me into the ring on the leash so I had hopes that she could run without Kathy there, not high ones but hopes of completing the course.

It was very difficult not running Kitt on Saturday, so we played in the grass and sprinkler and went for some walks.

Sunday was lovely, stayed in bed til 8:00am made breakfast then began the chore of restructuring the roof on the girl’s dog runs. They have been in shambles lately and last week was the last blow when rain bucketed down and took the tarp, supports with it to the ground. So now it is in much better condition with new tarps that blend with the obed. Bldg. (the blue tarp was not my idea…alas it is gone) and blends so much better now. It took quite a while since the kennels are now mounted to the bldg. and it took a bit of work to free the tarp from the bldg and put the new ones up. Moved some of the play chips to the 2^nd run and put fresh up front, Kitt thanked me, she does not like any previously soiled surface for her tootsie toes.

Then laundry quite a bit of laundry, took some things out of the van because new play chips for the kennels would be needed and I got that on Monday. There was a little bit of swinging going on in the swing chair with a beer…um good!

Had two private lessons with students, it was great fun working with a little Chihuahua, her mom is a great gal, actually trains her dogs and she has 3 currently in training in a new dog sport, no easy task. The young male BC was much improved in motivation with his handler and tugging games to excite him into play with her, I’ am excited now that we have something to motivate this young team.

Stopped at Daisy’s place to let her dogs out while she was gone. Fly and Solar made a lot of ruckus as they ran thru the screen door…I was happy to see that this was a repeat behavior (or did I just want to see think that) as the screen was already loose from prior occurrences. These two romped a bit and then laid down. No motion…and attempts to move them only made them get up and go to another quadrant from my position and lay down again. So I remembered that they go thru the garage to the potty yard to do their thing. So back in the house we went and then to the potty yard. Both pottied almost immediately. Jester was a good boy and did both bathroom behaviors as requested.

More laundry and kennel work on Monday, took Kitt swimming in the late afternoon. The current was too strong to swim up it so she swung in towards the shore each time and came up behind me. There were a lot of pick Knickers that took up the shallow swimming location. 

All that sleep I caught up on was lost last evening when I went to sleep late and awoke to Gems face licking.

I will brag for Sandy Birdsall her young BC “Keys” passed both herding tests this weekend and again on Monday for his PT title. Terbo Start me up, PT. Keys sire is a half sibling to Gem from the same dam who is related to my Kitt.

Have a good week all and hope your weekend was special to you.

Looking forward to the USDAA trial on grass this weekend, suppose to be hot!

Blynn

The weather was delightful, warm and dry at the Fleet Feet USDAA tournament trial in Turner, OR. It was so nice to be there.

Lisa Berglund and I got there early enough Sat am to park under the few trees along the fence next to the bldg. Set-up two x-pens with mats under them and they had a lovely area to stretch & layout on, bark at the other dogs playing ball in the field. Ok that was Gem barking.

Best dog thing that happened…Kitts toe held up very well. It has been tricky figuring out what over taxes it. The surface was clay with a thin layer of sand on it, which worked well to my surprise. The gravel that surrounded the bldg. was very pointy and rough and still no tenderness there. If she is tender it will definitely show up on gravel.

It was nice to be under cover from the sun. Barb has a big round livestock tank that the dogs could swim in 6-8’ across in diameter and 2’ high maybe and a little kids pool for the little guys.

Kitt did well for her team a little low snooker score and an off course in Team Relay. The baton swung as I ran of course and Kitt took one of those arm swings as a flip out to a chute, otherwise she did lovely all weekend. The difficulty of Team Standard was something that typically shows up at a Regional…no not even there it was just tough. Many, many teams bought this course. Somehow I managed to keep both girls on course with some refusals. It was quite a victory to get thru with that.

Kitt got placements in Team Gamblers & Standard, little Gemmie got a lovely 3^rd place in Team Jumpers…it was pretty cool! Both girls ran lovely in Jumpers Kitt and & I over shot the weave entry but she ran it just beautifully. Gem’s team came in 4^th in Team Relay and 10^th over all in Team so she is Q’d. Kitt still needs her DTeam Q…on ward ho will try again in a couple of weeks. Thanks all 4 team mates, Solar, Flirt, Roo, Speck!

Have a great week and I am looking forward to a 3 day weekend!!!! Yah Hooooooo

Blynn

Well a little change up from previous weekends and trialing weekends coming up.

I must have down time…I learn this lesson over and over…each time I get more committed to managing external happenings. I am improving!

Do you need down time from trialing, training etc. or does your ticker just keep on tickin thru all the training, teaching, trialing, traveling….hum they all start with a “T” I must remember not to name my next dog starting with a “T” even though I like the sound of it.

Sat. ole’ Nikki and I ventured to the German shepherd specialty in Renton, WA at Carco Park. It started with my long time friend Sandy Birdsall (since the early 1980;s). We have known each other and trained, trialed together when we lived in Alaska and had Shelties. We both eventually moved to WA and she got me hooked on Agility, from the days of the obedience and breed ring. Thanks Sandy it is definitely more exciting in every way possible.

Any who, Sandy’s Ricky got his first EX Rally Q, her old dog Flyer and my Nikki got their 2^nd RN q's. Flyer with a 3^rd and Nikki with a 4^th 93 pts. Nikki was a bit poopy in the hot weather…she was waiting for her cabana boy and Margareta to be served around each cone. A few tight leashes and not too tight left about turns and we arrived at a 93.  
It’s pretty special to be able to take a dog 3 weeks shy of 13 years of age and have her do so well, still able to chase and catch Frisbees in the air..ok 3” from the ground but she does lift.
She gets pretty snarly (looks pretty scarey if I were to be eye level, but empty threats) when any dog (maybe not Kitt so much but on occasion) gets within 3-4’ of her. She would be very easily deterred if someone told her differently.

Went to Kent Street Station and tried on some sandals. Watched Star Trek of which I thoroughly enjoyed. The names were all the same but of course the younger version. I thought they did a great job of not trying to mimic the old stars which made it very nice to follow along and not anticipate as well as enjoy the new cast.

Went straight away to “Stupid Prices” in Kent and met up with JB who came from Argus CPE trial selling her shirts. Then we went and shared an appetizer along with crab chowder soup and of course a drink. We have not spent much time together in recent weeks and it was nice to catch up again.

I think I went home after checking the mail at the post office or to Lisa’s for house sitting, the time is unmemoriable so can't recall.
I played with the dogs in the back yard except Kitt. We went to the near by park so she could romp about and have some individual time together. We took a different route and came up a very, very noisy group of very young kids. Throwing soda pop and their paper plates in the new tennis courts. Smashing the soda pop cans all over the courts. I did it, I called 911…between 2 dropped calls and them finding the proper police station for Browns Point (NW Tacoma, amazing how quickly the police can call one back on a cell phone without ever haven given them the number)

I never saw that they came out while I was there with Kitt but the next am when I took the whole gang to the park (5 dogs) an older “adult” and some kids came out to pick up the mess. Rain will have to wash away all the soda pop that was left on the nice turf.

Sunday, I woke up way too early 5:30 fed the dogs so I could go back to bed and no one would bug me. Cleaned the back yard (Tai & Gem have a grand time in Lisa's yard) and some other chores, picked up lunch for the Free Style workshop attendees at DW and dropped it off.
After lunch we learned the line dance. Never thought I would learn it at a dog training event but very applicable to the sport. I tell its very detailed work, choreography, musicality etc. a lot goes into it.

Left and did some errands came back and met up with Daisy for hike in Mud Dam Mtn. 5 miles NE of Enumclaw fairgrounds ( a must to remember after the OKC trials). We walked for a good stint and met no one until we were almost done. Then it got hairy for a moment or two. The incoming family and pack of dogs were a bit rough. I quickly tried to get Gem, Nikki on leash. Gem was wanting to get down there I think because Kitt was surrounded but of course I don’t really know her well enough in this new situation to tell yet, but adding Gem to that group would not be a calming influence.

I kept my eye on Kitt as I leashed the other two. I was concerned that if I called Kitt out of the middle of that group she may become a target to chase down. So I watched for a moment that I thought the dogs were turning away from her because their owners were trying to get a hold of them. It seemed to work Kitt came out of the group with not a big threat chasing after her. Phew!

Then hit Enumclaw for a nice Mexican beer & dinner. Not sure how Daisy liked it since she is still in search of replacing her old family Mexican restaurant her and David left back in OR.

Have a nice week, looking forward to an out of town trial in OR this weekend.

Ok Dan B…how about one Standard course without Aframe tunnel discrimination next time…lol.

Actually the courses were nice this weekend, suttle lines in standard. The Aframe discrimination kept us all on our toes this weekend. Kitt was sucked in on Friday, Gem lost it on Sat. she actually took the Aframe though.

Gem did great on her start lines all 5 runs, Sundays JWW was a little ify…my mouth opened and she took a bit of an advantage and left early. Her weaves were terrific got all her entries and exits even with some lateral moves and f/c at the end I am very proud of those two things. She had a bar in most of her runs except Fridays JWW and she finished her AXJ title, yippee!

I know her back is a bit tweaked and needs work as does Kitts…oh hell…mine does too.

Kitt was on fire this weekend, 3 JWW q’s one as a DQ on Sunday!

Fridays std as mentioned bit the off course tunnel, aframe combo. My falt of course I was going to do a r/c and backed out of it (as I apparently changed my mind midstream) and pulled her on the wrong line to the tunnel instead of the Aframe. Sat’s Std one bar L Sunday she did lovely again for DQ #14. We will make it yet!

There were a few MACH’s, Dutch the Sheltie, Dizzy the Border Terrier were two I recall, sorry if I missed anyone.

Next weekend outside on grass, can’t wait!

Blynn