IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Yea, he has it rough...

Light at the end of the tunnel, frigid air and other unrelated material

I'm in my last week of Finite Mathematics. I can see the light at the end of this particular tunnel. I'd be elated if I wasn't exhausted. The final to take by Sunday and I'm done. Once again I will be thankful to pass the class even it ends up as a C. Now, do I take Statistics or give myself a break? It's not as if there is alot going on in the next 8 weeks, I could probably work through that and then be done with classes related to MATH. I equate the word MATH to the other 4 letter words of SNOW and COLD. Put them in the same category as all other nasty words. We had a foot plus of snow, which led to drifts up to my hips in all sorts of places on the farm. Including the dog runs, which probably won't see the dogs until spring. Now it's turned really really cold and I believe that COLD is worse than SNOW. It will get warmer again but then of course I'll complain because there will be more SNOW.
Let's see, in the unrelated material category I'm still waiting on Spice to come in season. Typical of Spice she is probably waiting until the worst winter weather day known to Iowans in a century to come in. I just keep repeating, "it will be worth it, it will be worth it". Jam is totally into his sabbatical from training. It's so cute to have him "ask" me to work. He'll throw random obedience stuff at me just to get a reaction from me. It's actually making him focus on me more now that I've stopped training.
On another note I have to mention the cows. This years cows seem brighter than the last bunch. The last ones were very sweet and docile and with the exception of the two "jailbreaks" were very good. This batch has something up their collective hooves. First they watch all the time and are very interested in the gates. The back gate was replaced/repaired and I think they gave up on that one. The front gate has been beat to death and back again. They managed to push and bump and rub enough to break two of the four gate bars. They didn't try to escape, but I think it's because they could not figure out how to step over the bottom bar and duck at the same time. Rick fixed the gate but I swear they are still plotting a winter adventure.
Driving to and from work has been dicey more times than I would like this winter and I am grateful beyond words for the Trailblazer, and it's heated seats. Now if only it had a remote starter.
I asked "Santa" (aka, my bank account) for tools this year. A circular saw and drill. I suspect that both Jean and Kim think I'm out of my mind again and worried I'll end up in the ER again. I promise guys, safety goggles and I will actually read the directions on how to use them before I start. Which as a side note, I did not do today while trying to get the postage machine to lick the envelopes for me and no I did not get it to work. Sometimes the old fashioned way is the best. I had visions of building something along the lines of a mini-loafing shed to use as with more kennels, but I'm not sure my methods of duct tape and zip-strips to fix things will hold up an entire building.
And of course the usual feeling of being cooped up is already settling in and my mind is wandering to dog shows and trials. I probably need to get off my rear end and start training again huh? Hmm...maybe after a cup of hot something...

DORA SEEKS ELVIS

Dora is getting a new home! She will be going to live in the Memphis TN area and will no doubt be wanting a tour of Graceland hoping to catch a glimpse of Elvis. Seriously, she will be heading out to live with my sister, her husband and my nephew, Ben. Ben is 5 now and is so excited to be getting a dog. When he was a baby they had a very old Rough Collie that had been a rescue I got from NE. Sam was such a great babysitter and Ben would lay on him and crawl all over him. Ben was asking mom tonight if he was going to be able to give Dora her food and water and if she could sleep in his room. In his room? Try in his bed. I wonder if Ben will share his trains with her? I'll miss her but I have to be practical when it comes to the dogs, that's part of showing and breeding dogs. Otherwise you end up with 25+ dogs of various breeds, alot of them not part of your breeding program and spending their days crated doing nothing. So I've made a committment to keeping only one or two dogs (okay maybe 3) that aren't a part of my breeding program. Of course Dora would stay here forever if I hadn't found such a great home, but I'm tickled that Kim,Scott and Ben will be welcoming her into theirs. As Elvis would say "Thank you, thank you very much".

AN AHHH MOMENT

Here are Trace and his 1/2 sister, Rumor. When I first brought Rumor home Trace was disgusted. He had just decided to tolerate Bella and in walked Rumor. Bella and Rumor bonded immediately and I believe they plot to annoy Trace. Trace and his Collie buddy Spice are only about 6 weeks apart in age and were raised together so he is a Collie. So these new Cardigan girls are, well, you know, beneath him. (There's a small ha-ha in there somewhere!)

After a long morning playing outside here is what I found in the living room. Trace and Rumor cuddled up together. Please note Rumor also likes to sleep on top of a pile of toys (I think that's a Nemo fish under her). And yes, the living room rug always looks like this, dogs, dog toys, dog bowls (because Maddy brings them all out to the living room after a meal--and no I have no idea why) and of course, dog hair. :-)

So this is my ahhh moment for today, Trace's acceptance Rumor, if he only knew how much fun she will someday be!

WHY COLLIES AND CARDIS ARE "MEANT TO BE"

I was hauling stuff upstairs and happened to look out the stairway window today and saw this. I ran quickly downstairs to grab the camera and got a couple of halfway decent shots thru the window. That's why the quality is rough. But these pics of Harold and Rumor are the epitome of why Collies and Cardigans go so well together.

BELLA

I was taking pics today and there was Bella standing there just begging to have her pic taken. She's growing up and looking good right now. She's been doing that puppy thing, one day level, one day high in rear, then level. I just quit looking after a while. She did great at her first show weekend in Sioux Falls and came home with a RWB. Right now she's into growing up, bugging Jam, annoying Trace and perfecting her cardigan wiggle butt maneuver.

SPREADING RUMORS

Introducing "Rumor", Qwaynt's Something To Talk About. Nope, she is not named after the movie with Julia Roberts, she is named after a song by Bonnie Rait. Just a bit of trivia for you all! I have my brindle again-yippee! She is out of Jean's, Danni (Kennebec Qwaynts Miss Danielle) and Webster (Am/Fin Ch. Yardican Cardiridge Weli Welho). This makes her a 1/2 sister to Trace (Ch Qwaynt's Mystery Man) as they share the same mom. Now this should make my Cardigans complete, okay well I could get a red and complete the color palate, but maybe someday Trace and Rumor will produce a red.

With half-bro Trace and "Auntie Maddy" Dang it--this place has a fence!

SIGNS OF THE SEASON

Just a few pictures of the signs of the season. Let's call this one, pre-winter.

KENNELS READY FOR WINTER

These runs go into the garage runs, note new motion detector light

on the corner of the garage--Thanks Don!!

BARE WALNUT TREES IN THE SOUTH YARD

Most of the agility equipment is put away-you can see one

of the weave poles in the bottom right corner, those will be

the last to come in for the year.

BALES OF CORN HUSKS DOT THE LANDSCAPE

THE COWS PLANNING THEIR NEXT WINTER ESCAPE

Grandma Mary and Josh were over yesterday a.m. to rig up

this temporary solution. These are some smart cows, they

have managed to dismantle parts of the gate. Note that the

black cow with the backwards "7" on his head and the one

next to him are 2 that I made friends with this year--I hope they

aren't thinking that if they escape they get to some in the house...

MANURE SPREAD ON A HARVESTED FIELD

HARVESTED BEAN FIELDS

PLAYING THE WAITING GAME, AGAIN

Let's just say I am not always a patient person. I do try and have been told that there are times I do show more patience than I should. But there are times that I just am not and get antsy. Spice is supposed to be in season soon and I am antsy. Apparently the old saying, "a watched pot never boils" is true about dogs and heat cycles. A watched Collie never comes in season...sigh. I do feel sorry for Spice. It must be heck having your owner plop you on the grooming table each and every night and look at your backside. And of course, because I want it so badly I'm doing the same to Dora. Spice takes it in stride and couldn't care less. On the other hand Dora always looks offended. And I don't really expect Dora to come in, that's just wishful thinking at this point. But ohhhh...Spice puppies, I really want Spice puppies badly. Of course I did my usual "name the litter" thing and that has been a curse in the past. I was bored at work on day and came up with an entire list of names. It's the "R" litter. Why? Who knows, it just came to me. My first and favorite is Maiwae Rendezvous with a call name of Tryst. That kind of got the ball rolling, reverberate, revolution, resonance, you get the picture. So I have a list of 8 top names and call names to go with them to choose from. I have to confess, if she has a small litter of really, really nice puppies it's going to be hard not to keep them all to show. Of course that would mean more kennels and fencing. I was recruited to answer the phones one day last week and had time to map out additional kennel runs and fencing ideas, what a mistake that was! Now I know with a little work on layout and some free labor (any volunteers??) next spring I could eventually have 7 to 9 indoor/outdoor runs and an additional 8-10 outdoor only runs. Now if can talk the landlord into letting me have the small outbuilding....
And yes, I know, I don't need nor will I ever be able to have as many dogs as I could actually house. Unless Prince Charming arrives with a full size van, a full time job and has some type of wholesale dog food connection! LOL! (Oh and let's not forget he has to have a riding lawn mower too!)
Until next time...

A Long Week and Announcement

It's been one of those long weeks. I've been putting in extra hours on the math class. I will say it is easier than Algebra, but there is alot of work. I'm down to needing to take this weeks test and I'm done for this week. Work has been crazier than usual. This is a bad time of year for our patients on Medicare. Many of them have accumulated the maximum for prescription drug coverage and are now required to pay the full cost for their meds. So I have had a flood of patients looking for assistance. Not to mention we have had more than our usual amount of patients that have insurance but either have huge out of pocket costs for treatment or their insurance won't cover their treatment. The paperwork on my desk quadrupled this week, my phone was nearly constantly busy and Iwas about ready to put up CAUTION tape across my cubicle to keep the nursing staff out. The best part of my week was being able to get a patient with no Medicare prescription drug coverage a very expensive ($1400 for 10 pills) drug for free and turn it around from getting the problem on Monday to delivering the medicine to her door on Wed. It made my week!
The weekend is supposed to be lovely and I can't wait to spend time outside with the kids. I still need to clear out the one side of the garage and move some more stuff around upstairs. Rick is in the bean fields, he was out there most of the evening. It has finally dried up enough around here to get the farmers in the fields. So I expect continual combining this weekend since the farm is surrounded by fields of bean and corn. With harvest season comes the NO OFF LEASH rule. Same as during planting season. But I'm hoping that the weather holds for a few more weekends, because those harvested bean fields make great tracking areas. I've been wanting to work Trace more in tracking if only just for fun.
We have a new arrival coming soon to the gang at Maiwae. Going to try a bit different dog than we have now. Oh and I finalized plans for Spice's breeding to Trigger. Fingers crossed, I'm thinking gorgeous puppies--let's all think Smooooth versus the hairy ones. 2 of those are enough for now! :-)
Until next time...

Weekend

Had a good productive weekend. Since Sat was pretty blustery around the farm the dogs and I spent most of the day inside. They "helped" me take out the air conditioners, I got those pesky bugs that look like ladybugs but aren't all sucked up in the vaccum, the upstairs rooms have all the windows plasticed (probably not a real word), the airbeds are deflated and everything put away for winter dog workouts. Moved a few empty boxes to the upstairs closets as well as some items sitting in that front hallway. This week I need to go and buy some more window plastic and some of the heavy plastic stuff for to seal up the unfinished rooms upstairs. The farmhouse is awesome, but they only finished up 2 bedrooms and a 1/2 bath upstairs. The other 2 rooms are pretty much the same as the day the house was built, so I put heavy duty plastic up on those windows and the doors that lead into the other rooms. The heat vents have all been removed to those areas so no heat gets lost thru them. Which is good because LP bills will make you gag for the winter.

Today was wonderful, the sun was shining, the dogs and I spent most of the a.m. outside. I worked on the kennels, moved a couple of the dog houses inside around and Harold is getting moved to an outside run with Bella in the middle. I found more signs of her damn digging again and at least if she digs in the middle kennel all she gets is either Harold or Spice and not freedom. Trace will go back in with Spice until she comes in season,since that kennel is the bigger one. Put up more tarps for wind breaks. I think we'll be fine until next spring. Then I'm going to have to decide to either expand another set of indoor/outdoor runs out the back or on the other side of the garage for the additional dogs. Or I'll need to just set up outside runs with really good dog houses. I hate to put up more indoor/outdoor runs because the other sides of the garage fast NW. Oh well, all winter to think about that one!

Laundry, laundry, laundry and I put away all the dog show stuff for the year. I still have some things to do in the garage and get the crates re-arranged in the dog room and of course a few more windows to be done for the year.

I hate the fact that it's 8:00 and I'm about ready for bed. My body doesn't get the time change thing, it will be a long week. Although I do love that I'll be driving in to work in daylight, the driving home at night and then having it be dark when I get home will really stink. Oh yea, still need to work out a light system so I can see to scoop the kennels after work.

Started Finite Math this week and it went well. I actually understood it and didn't panic. Still wondering if my brain was high-jacked for the week and the real brain will kick in on week 2 and I'll be confused, but maybe I'll luck out this sudden understanding of math systems will remain with me for the next 7 weeks.

More later!

SIOUX FALLS UPDATE

Yep, you guessed it--more rain, because why? I'm traveling to a show. I have become convinced that my intent to enter a show is taken by Mother Nature as a sign to rain. Okay, so it's just coincidence, but is it really??
Bella did a terrific job this weekend. The Fri. night fun match was well run and we had loads of time to spend just wandering around getting used to all the show sights, smells and sounds. NILIF paid off and she did her table work like a little pro. Although she did seem a bit confused that no dinner bowl was then placed in front of her. The sausage I had cooked up for the weekend appeased her. Gaiting was not a problem. In fact our Sat. judge Dr. Battaglia told me to lengthen my stride because that puppy can move out. Dang it! I had to almost run with Trace when I was showing him and now Bella. I think it might be all that conditioning the dogs get running in the huge fenced area. Which, fingers crossed I can expand to more running areas in the spring. On Sun. Chris Walkowicz was our judge, I like showing to her, she is good with the dogs and always so pleasant. Bella did her stuff and I was perfectly happy with just that. Diana and Mac Mann's "Monkey" went WB and then the judge pointed at Bella for Reserve! It was a big deal for me because we were just there to be there. I didn't expect a thing for this young girl except experience and a happy time in the ring. The RWB was just icing on the cake.
Harold qualified for legs 4 and 5 in rally novice-heeeheee. He has his RN but needs some more ring time before Advanced. He's just a year old and such a happy guy. Both judges were fantastic and agreed with me that it was a good thing not to push on to that upper class too fast.
Jam and I had a great Fri. fun match. Sahra was there to tape it for me which I highly recommend because boy can you see your handling errors and how your dog reacts to them. On Sat. we came close to qualifying--the long sit got us again. So I pulled him on Sun. to keep from inadvertently reinforcing that he can get up on the long sit.
That was our last show for the year. I'm tired, the dogs are tired, the weather is getting cold and icky and I'm ready to hibernate for a few months. Spice is due in season in November and I'll be concentrating on puppies for a few months. Trace goes into agility training this winter and the upstairs bedrooms will once again become training areas. Stays, scent training, dumbell training, all that can be done inside in the winter. And Jam and I might hit a couple of trails when we get nice weekend weather to put some miles on his backpacking title.
Until next time...

NILIF

Bella is going to her first show this weekend and definately has needed table work. This is not her fault, it's all mine. I really hadn't thought about taking her out this year, but dang it she's just so cute! And she learned how to strut on the end of the leash at our last outing, so what the heck, right? I hate training dogs to stand on the table, geez if the judges were better sports about it, couldn't they just judge our short dogs on the ground? ;-)
Well, Bella has learned how to stack on the table using the NILIF method. Nothing In Life Is Free. The past two nights she's had her dinner standing on the table with me picking up feet and moving them and stopping her eating to look at her bite and stack her up, then onto munching her dinner. Voila! We have table manners--heehee! Go Bells!

RESEARCH DONE!

My research paper for this class is done! Woo-hoo! One last quiz to take and this class is over. I'm hoping to knock the reading and quiz out tomorrow night since I have a lot to do before this next weekend. On the down side my next class starts the 26th and it's Finite Mathematics. Ugh, ugh, ugh. But I have to have that as a pre-requisite for Statistics and I need that as a requirement for my degree.
I am however looking forward to this next weekend. We are off to Sioux Falls and it should be a blast! Amy, Alisa and Sahra will be there with Collies in breed and Sahra and I are hitting the obedience rings. Jean, Diana and Mac are coming with the Cardigan crew and it's my Bella's first show. No ring conflicts--how the heck did that happen? Must be a good sign. There's a fun match and a correction match that we'll be taking advantage of on Friday. Between our group and all the dogs we have entered it's going to be one big ol' Collie-Corgi fest! I love the Sioux Falls show site and always have fun there. This could be the last show for the year depending on breeding Spice and just the general money situation. I also need to plan a visit to my sis in Memphis this fall.
Off to bed to read a good FUN book - the textbooks have been put away for the night!

TRACE ATTEMPTS TO DITCH BELLA

Poor Trace. He like being the only short dog in the house. But then Bella came along. Bella follows Trace around like a little sister. If dogs could talk, "Hey Trace, what'cha doin'? Huh, huh, huh..can I play?" "That bone looks really good Trace, you'll share it with me right? Huh, huh, huh...?" "I will grab your tail and run the other way Trace! Pay attention to me!"
Trace rolls his eyes at me and gives me that "look"--I am so not amused by her mom! What the heck were you thinking when you brought that blue THING home???
Every morning I take Spice, Harold, Trace and Bella out to the kennels. Spice on leash, the others off leash. Every morning they come and run into their kennels for the morning cookie snacks. This morning Trace, with Bella at his heels ran to the barn and proceeded to teach my Bella baby to eat petrified cow poo. I put Spice and Harold up and call for Trace and Bella. Trace is there like a rocket looking sweet and innocent and happy to kennel up and get his cookie. I look for his constant companion Bella. No Bella. Okay Trace where did you leave her?
Sure enough I go around the kennels and there she is wandering near the barn still snacking. She's a good girl though and came when I said, "Hey Bella--cookies!"
I swear, Trace took Bella out there to ditch her hoping I wouldn't notice she was gone. Jeez Trace I can count to 4 ya know!
Boy is Trace gonna be peeved with Cardigan #3 joins the group, not to mention those pesky Collie puppies. I'm pretty sure he's plotting some sort of revenge on me!

What happened to fall???

I'm sorry, but fall should have temps in the 50's, not the 30's and 40's. Of course my sister Kim rubs it in that yesterday it was almost 80 in Memphis. Brat. Of course the trade off is they have huge bugs in Memphis and I'm not a big bug fan.
Of course I have the mole this year. I know, he's after the lawn grubs or whatever. And no, I am not going to treat the entire amount of lawn that I have. I mean really, I don't even like mowing it, can you really see me doing the fertilizer, grub killer, grass seed, perfect lawn attempt thing? Nope, neither can I. I was fine with this mole until he started making a path thru 2 of the kennels. I kept stomping down his tunnels, he kept redigging. Dang it, got a mole as stubborn as I am. So I pounded a 2 x 4 into his tunnel and he finally decided to take a different path, around the kennels. I call that a successful negotiation.
Today's been cool, okay I'm going to call it cold. I hate the cold and it's windy too and of course a wonderful northwest wind. I layered up and went to town, got some groceries and headed home. I hate driving on the weekends. That 100 mile roundtrip each day pretty much kills any joy of driving I ever had. Decided it was time to pitch the baby crib matteress the dogs had been using. They had chewed one end off and it was pretty gross. So I stripped all the outside covers and foam and such off. Put the spring part in the garage, I'll probably do a winter project and repad and cover it, cause it does make a nice doggy bed. I burned the rest of it and let me tell you I was horrified! This stuff went up like, well I don't know what, but it was horrifying. It burned fast and hot and was gone in a poof. I kept thinking about how a house fire could really eat somethnig like that up in a flash. So when I redo the bed for the dogs there will be no foam padding. Scarey stuff.
On a happier note I did the long walk to the mail box this afternoon. I was going to take Harold on leash (!) and Dora off leash. But Jam had an absolute fit and howled at the gate before I got around the corner to head down the lane. I went back for him and put Dora away. She was way too into finding that cow poo stuff to eat. Jam was thrilled and so was Harold. This was Harold's first mail trip. I try to rotate dogs and some I know can go off leash and some, well not so much. I dropped the leash about 1/2 way down and Harold stuck with me. Then I tried a little obedience exercise at the end of the drive (since I have to go across and a bit down the road to get the mail) and put Jam on a sit stay. Talk about making a dog nervous. I left him sitting at the end of the drive and took Harold with me. He almost made it, but stood up right before we got back. I think the stress of knowing I took Harold with me instead of letting him go with was too much for his brain to take. Harold had been so good he got to go back up the drive off leash. So Harold had a successful mail run. I know that I can take Maddy, Jam, Dora or Trace and they are great on mail runs. Harold needs some more of the same, Spice will never get the off leash chance (see previous post on Cow Adventures) and I haven't tried Bella yet. Somehow I think she will only listen if Trace is with her to round her back up. Bella follows Trace around like he is her best pal. I don't think the feeling is mutual.
Back to work on my research paper....

COW ADVENTURE

Way back in Sept. I promised the telling of the latest ADVENTURES OF COW LAND! Last late winter and into early spring we had a couple of cow jail breaks and the dogs really got an up close and personal as the cows paraded down the driveway and around the dog yard. I had called them all in and the of course I had cows IN the dog yard, but that's another adventure story.
Since that time Spice has become fascinated with the cows. Anytime she was off leash she would go to the barn and lot and run around it in various spots to bark at the cows and of course, eat cow poo. I still don't get the obvious doggy delicacy of cow poo...but I digress. After a couple of long attempts and walks and finally taking the blazer out to round her up I put her on leash restriction to and from the kennels. She had been doing so well that one day after work I let the guys out of the runs and her too, off leash. The rest of the crew headed to the dog yard and Spice went thataway to the cows. I figured I would change my clothes and go out and get her. I was thinking she would be around back of the barn barking and running back and forth at the back gate. Wrong.
I couldn't find her, I could hear her, but I couldn't see her. Just as I was about to get panicked I see this fluffy tail WAAAAYYY down on the south side of the pen. Of course the "S" word came flying out, she's clear on the other side of the fence. Wrong again. I get closer and see she is IN THE PEN WITH THE COWS! The "F" word comes flying out and panic begins to settle in. This dog has no recall, literally none, doesn't remember her name, deaf as a stone when she wants to ignore you, etc. And she's in full work mode. Who knew Spice had a work mode? But she had managed to separate about 50 of the 150 head of cows up against the south side of the barn and was trotting back and forth about 50 feet in front of them occasionally barking at them. I went to the north side, the west side and could not get to her. Finally I sucked it up and crawled into the pen with the cows. Now, I really love cows, I collect cow figurines, etc. and have really gotten into petting them and making friends, from outside the fence. Cows inside the fence, well not so much liking, more like a little scared, they aren't too smart and these cows were worried. I crawled in and you could just see the relief on the faces--oooohhh a human--save us, save us from the fluffy, noisy, "thing"! I did not wish to save 50 cows all coming at me, so I yelled and waved my arms and they moved away. As I walked down to get Spice a couple of the braver ones tried to come forward out of line, Spice turned, stared at them and if cows had the ability, they would have saluted her, apologized and smartly got back into line. Looking worried, again.
You know how cow poo and dirt can look all nice and packed down and dry? Yea, well looks are deceiving. Apparently a 48lb Collie can float on top, not so with a full grown human--one foot in and up to my knee in mud, cow poo and I don't want to know what else. It sucked my shoe off my foot and I had to put my foot back into it to retrieve my shoe, at the same time cursing the dog and trying to keep the cows from leaping into my arms for safety from the dog. Couldn't get the damn dog from that angle, she was "working" and wouldn't stop. Out I go from the pen, walked all the way around the pens and barn and about a 1/4 mile of the bean field, found an opening big enough in the bottom fence area, got her to come to me and drug her fluffy butt outta there. Slapped a leash on her and that's all I have to say about that.
No more off leash for Spice, ever, ever again.

LINCOLN UPDATE

Well, we tanked it this weekend. Can't win 'em all and in the end I was actually very proud of my Jam. I was pretty nervous before Novice obedience, it's been oh let's see, 10 years since I put a CD on a dog?? Ugh, too long out of the ring. I also knew that Jam was iffy on some of the exercises. I just wanted him to stay in the ring with me but totally expected him to lay down on the long sit or come to me. I was so proud of Jam--he did all the exercises so nicely, had a few slow sits, one really long lag that he corrected and a no finish due to some sniffing. But at that point we had qualified. The long sit did us in, as I expected. What I didn't expect was Jam going to visit the Lab next to him and sniff at him. So that was it for us, a NQ.
Then Alisa showed Spice for me in breed since I had a ring conflict and she went Reserve out of 2. I think Alisa was right, she didn't like the overhead heaters kicking on and I wasn't in the ring with her. Oh well, no biggy. That's Spice's last show for this year. She's dropping coat like a mad woman and is due in season. I am looking so forward to getting her bred and having puppies in the house.
On to Harold. I was hoping Harold would redeem the crew for the day, but alas, it was not to be. He got a case of the sniffies and I called the run. I don't want him getting bad habits and learning he can do that. I talked with my obedience guru Sahra and she thinks that it's a sign of his youth. Poor baby he just turned a year old and thinks everything is fun, fun, fun and really doesn't understand in the ring is work time. But oh he had fun, as usual!
Onward to Sioux Falls and a few other trials before the snow flys. I suppose I could keep working and working for perfection but I don't want to be one of those people that says they have obedience dogs but never get them out in the ring to attempt a title. We'll take our hard knocks knowing that at some point we have to get in the ring to get the titles. I'll take this weekend as a learning experience and at least know that Jam is on the edge of that CD. I've promised him he doesn't have to go on to open work if he'll work with me on getting a jumpers agility title. I think that's a fair trade :-)

Holy Rainstorm Batman!

You know it's raining. You know it HAD to rain because I entered a dog show this weekend. The last dog show I entered it rained. I am only thankful that we are inside at this one. I sort of downsized after moving to the country and getting stuck in the drive with the mini-van. So I have a cute little Trailblazer with 4WD that is awesome. But of course it doesn't hold as much dog show stuff. So tomorrow a.m., when it's probably going to be raining, I'll be strapping crates to the top. For my next purchase I have my eye on one of those hitch mounted carriers. I found a couple and can't decide on which. One has higher sides which would be nice, but probably not as easy to stack crates on, gotta take the tape measure with me and see what works best. Because I'm not going to keep doing the lift and strap to the top thing. I'm getting too old for that, especially in crappy weather.
Thank goodness I only have one dog entered in breed competition, so only one to keep totally clean. The other two can get a spit and brush out any mud if need be. Bella's going for the ride and she's more gray than white in spots. The joys of the shorty dogs and mud.
Well, gotta get my laundry done so I have something to wear and then give Spice a bath and blow out. Ugh, I just hope she's still holding in her hair!
Updates on the weekend later!

THE PLANETS MUST BE IN ALIGNMENT

Jam had another wonderful practice session today. He is once again a fully functional obedience dog. All brain cells firing on command. Oh he has a few crooked sits and a bit of a lag on the one part of the figure 8 exercise and he looked a little panicked at the very end of the 3 minute down, but oh what a good boy he was! If he does it good the first time we stop right there. I've learned about the Collies, you do not drill a Collie. They get bored and frustrated and quit. So if they get it right the first time we take it. It'll never be a perfect 200, but if it's a qualifying score I'm totally happy. Better to have a happy dog than a high in trial. Not that I'd turn down a high in trial score, of course :-)
Harold is the first naturally talented dog I've had since Murphy back in the early-mid 90's. He learns everything super fast, works happy all the time and just will not quit. He loves to work. His off leash heeling is better than his on leash, his focus for such a young dog is spot on and he has the fastest sit I've ever seen in a Collie. For such a big guy he is very agile and turns tight and does this almost sliding into a sit. And of course the non stop wagging of the tail. Today he proved he can jump the 20" required in rally advanced/excellent. And in true Harold style he cleared it by a mile.
Jam, Harold and I will be traveling to show next weekend so let's hope that those planets remain in perfect alignment.