Happy New Year

Recap of 2008 and goals for 2009
2008 was a pretty quiet year. Grace had her pups, and earned a couple of q's toward her RA. Magic earned a few agility titles, mostly early in the year. Peace earned her first point toward her Ch, and Siren just hung around being loved.

I have some hopes and dreams for 2009. I would like to see Grace earn her RA, and her UKC Ch. I am hoping that Magic and I will be able to do a few agility trials, and maybe pick up a couple of titles. Hopefully Peace will enjoy her times in the show ring, and pick up a few wins along the way. I am also hoping to work with Siren in obedience and tracking.

This weekend is the Northstar Herding Group Club show and the Land O Lakes shows. It will be a busy one as I am showing and working all 3 days. There is a big Cardigan entry, so it should be fun. Wishing you all a wonderful new year.

Big Game Hunters???

Well, I swear that tonight I laughed as hard as I ever have with these goofy corgis. Peace and Siren found a mouse outside. All day it was melting so the snow is really wet, the poor little mouse was running across the snow. The corgis were following. The poor mouse would get snapped up, dropped, nosed, chased, snapped up again. Of course I was trying to get the poor thing away, trying not to fall on the slipper hard snow, in my slippers. Laughing. All it took was me getting too close and OOPS no more mouse. All I saw was a tail going in and then gone. Silly girls!
Sorry no pictures, I was trying not to fall on my bum.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a wonderful, safe and peaceful holiday. Merry Christmas from the Daybreake and Dancing Feathers family.

Peaces picture

Here is Peaces first point picture. Not the best picture ever, but thats OK.

Its very snowy in Minnesota today and the temps have dropped back below zero with big wind chills. Earlier today it was much warmer and the dogs had a great time running in the snow. Now though its way cold again. Not sure I am liking this too much.

My 6th Photo

Here's the deal: You have to check your Photo Archives (or wherever you store your images) then select the 6th file folder, open it & post the 6th picture contained there, with the story behind it.

My 6th photo's story:

This is Indy. He is one of Pete and Tillies babies. You can see his newhatch picture at our website. This picture is from 2 years ago when his mom and I were trying to get a christmas card photo. Kind of funny it came up a christmas photo. This is our 6th shot. I liked the next one so much because it is such Indy's personality. If I remember right he later pooped on Santa. He is a typical parrotlet-speaks his mind and let's his preferences be known. They are such fun little birds.

We were tagged by ManyMuddyPaws. Check out hers too!

Now I have to tag six friends to do the same: Qwaynt Cardigans, Maiwae Collies, Simple Things, Ramsey Farms, Living Life in Shades of Grey and anyone else who wants too.

Make sure to comment so I know you've played!

Cold Winter Weather

Well, its very very cold in Minneapolis. The dogs run out, and limp in in just a few minutes. I hate when its so cold their little feet hurt. Yesterday Ziggy came over to visit. It was too cold to play outside, so they played in the house. Much fun, but since they never stopped, all the pictures are just a blur. Ziggy is growing up to be a handsome but big boy. At 7 months he is already over 30 pounds. Hopefully I can get his people to send me a nice photo!

6 Things we like

We were tagged by Garrett over at Ramsey Farms to say the 6 things we like. So here is our list:


1. Our friends and family.

2. Food- shoot-no brainer-look how chubby we all are! And holiday baking...liver brownies, garlic cheese biscuits. oh yeah people food too.

3. De-stuffing our toys- well everyone on this one except Grace and Mom who has to clean up the mess.

4. Dog events-whether conformation, agility, obedience, rally, herding, tracking, we like playing at all of them. We like winning or qualifying, but we have fun even if not.

5. A snuggle on the couch with Mom, all 4 corgis and Kazin, well at least the attempts for all of us to fit.

6. The birds. Well some of the corgis like them, the others want to eat them-I guess that puts them in the food category....



I will tag these folks to participate: Rugby, Riley and Zoey at House of Cardis,
Bug at Molasses Aint Got Nothin' on Us
Vito, Pixel, Boone and Wicca at Many Muddy Paws,
Monty at Monty's Training Diary,
Rah and Berlin at I Dream of OTCH
Steve, Mushroom and Luce at Save the Pit Bull, Save the World

Have fun!

Peaces First Point

Well Peace was awarded her first point today. The judge excused Music saying he was limping, but no one else could see it. Oh well.

Snow Play

The girls. You can see in this picture just how curly Siren really is.

The kids play and Mom supervises.

Everyone gets in the action as Grace takes Magic down.

Dog Star Wrestling

3 corgis under 7 months along with 2 adult corgis makes for one crazy wrestling match! Music is here for the weekend as he will be going to the dog show with us on Sunday. Peace and Siren are thrilled and its been nonstop frapping since we walked in the door. I think everyone will sleep well tonight. Hopefully in the daytime tomorrow I can get some pictures. 5 wrestling dogs in my house-lets hope its still standing come Sunday!

Wordless (Wooing) Wednesday

Fun Match Today

Today at the fun match there was as many cardis as pems! If I counted right there were 11! Thats a first I think. It was so much fun seeing so many happy smiling bouncing herding group pups. Siren did really well for a 6 month old pup in pre novice. Especially since she hasn't yet taken an obedience class. No Q, but I wanted this to jsut be fun fun fun for her and she seemd to be very happy. Grace didnt Q either, but we will keep working on her issues - there are several. Magic had a nice run in Graduate novice with a Q and 181.5. Heeling is getting a bit better, but out biggest issue today was we had to stop and scratch his neck repeatedly. I thought it might be a stress reaction, but now I am not sure as he has scratched several times after. It happened at home too, but stopped once I changed him out of his show collar, so maybe the collar was really bothering him.

Music and Talie came as well. Sure is fun seeing the kids although with 4 dogs to show I didnt get to spend much time with either of them. All in all a fun time.

Herding Group Club Fun Match

Just wanted to invite and remind everyone about the North Star Herding Group Clubs fun match this Saturday. We will have non regular obedience and a conformation fun match for herding breeds. So if any of you with Graces kids want to come and try some Pre-Novice obedience? Siren and Grace might be giving Pre-Novice a try, Magic will probably try Graduate Novice. And Peace and maybe Grace will be in the fun match. Music (Nine) and his mom will be coming.

Lure Coursing

A while back we went to the Doggiepalooza so Magic could go lure coursing again. We had gone a couple of years ago and he seemed to really enjoy it, so we went again. Here is a link to the pictures. He sure looks happy to me. Magics pictures start in the second row, second one in.

http://www.allcreaturesphoto.com/Events/20081004_DoggiePalooza/index_22.html

Grace the Guardian

Ever since Grace had the pups, she has become the family watchdog. Not one noise can occur anywhere without her checking it out. She has always been a talker-but now, she never stops. She barks and woofs and woos and grumbles constantly. I dont mind the quieter stuff, but the barking has got to stop. My house is 3 feet from my neighbors. She needs to not bark so much. Quiet used to work, but not anymore.
Along with this, she has become the fun police, well, maybe its more the tug police. Magic loves to tug and so do both puppies, so its not uncommon for a game of chase grab and pull to be happening. Grace stops it. It is not allowed. It is not allowed even if Mom is on one end of the toy. She just walks up, grabs the middle of the tug and whatever other dog(s) is involved drops the toy and walks away. Then Grace drops the toy and walks away. It's not that she wants to play-she just doesn't want any tugging! Is that strange or what?

Mine Birthday by Magic

Magic here. Just wanted to send out Happy Birthday wishes to all mines family. I be 4 today so I gots mine faborite reward-da cheezeburger! I thought since I bees 4 I should get 4, but, I just gots one. But I didnt have to share wiff no doggie. Gone in 6 secons!

I also got to go to Petco and pick a new toy and all of us gots a big cookie. Is a good day.

Almost the weekend

It's almost the weekend, and it's cold. Very cold. Too cold. With my health issues, I am always cold anyways, but the first cold of winter almost knocks me over. Yuck. Good thing that I have no major plans for the weekend. I work at the store tomorrow, which I actually love. And hopefully I will be seeing some friends on Sunday and maybe one of Grace's pups will come visit.
I have been really lazy lately about training the dogs, though. I need to do a schedule or plan I think, something to keep me going. Otherwise, I see a future of me and the 5 dogs on the couch, under the quilt. HMM. Doesn't really sound like a bad plan does it?

Addicted to Blogging

I am addicted to all of your blogs. Is there a 12 step program for blogs? I am spending way too much time reading blogs lately. I love the sheep blogs, the chicken blogs, the craft blogs, and of course the dog blogs. Lets not forget the fugly horse blog, the cake wrecks blog, dolittler and on an on. I used to read books-lots and lots of books. Now its better, I can listen to one book on tape and read blogs. WOOHOO. Heaven. Oh, you mean I should probably actually train my dogs, or work on one of those many quilts I have in progress. No, I should be working on my new knitting project. Or maybe doing the dishes.... dang, did you all read that other blog.........

I admit I am an addict.. isn't that the first step??

Weight Loss Challenge

OK, well I think you can tell from the photo below, weight loss is definately needed. I have to admit that last week it just was not my focus, but on the positive side, even with a dog show weekend, over 14 hours in the car, and multiple meals out, I managed to drop 2. Well, thats what the scale said anyways.
On a positive side, I decided it was time to get serious, so tonight instead of coming home after getting off work and getting my car to go shopping, I walked to the downtown target. Now really thats not such a big deal- 8-10 blocks or so, but then I wrestled a large package of TP home on a very crowded bus. I think that probably worked off more agravation calories than anything. After all, I had my heavier fall coat, my purse, my work tote bag, a smaller target bag and this giant 24 roll package to TP. Had to buy the big size, it was on sale!

Dog Show Trip

Really bad pictures-our digital is way to slow.

Darryl and I had a very nice weekend, a late anniversary weekend.

Peace did really well at her first show, not perfect but not bad for a girl just 6 months old. She took 2nd (out of 2) in her class both days, to the bitch who won both days.

Todays judge pulled me aside to tell me how much she really liked her and that she will be lovely once she grows up and settles into herself. I thought that was very nice of her. Hopefully we will have a couple of nicer film pictures from the other camera to share later.

Poor Peace

Peace has an ear infection. Today she is not bright and happy like she was in this picture. She had to go to the vet and they poked around in places she would rather they didn't. She has meds to take and ear drops for a few days.

She really isn't feeling poorly from the ear infection though-just prior to going to the doc, she and Magic were rolling around the floor in full body wrestling. She is just a bit pissy, though, because of the indignity of the exam!

Glad we got her meds though, her first big girl dog show is this weekend! And, yes, I asked the vet if we should stay home and she said that it would be fine to go, she isnt contagious, and the meds will help in a day or so.

There will be quite a few cardis at the show, a 4 point major. We arent expecting anything though, other than a bit of experience and a good time.

Watching Wednesday

Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day. I hope everyone today can thank and honor both our veterans and our active service men and women who have given so much for all of us. My flag is flying, is yours?

Differences

The girls are so very different from each other. Peace is a princess type girly girl. She is gentle, very loving and snuggly, would rather not get her feet wet or muddy. Siren is a tom boy, rougher in play, dig holes and I swear would climb trees if she could. She is not bothered by rain, dirt or mud, water is a joy, and anything that moves is to be chased. Leaves falling from trees is great entertainment.
This morning we had the first snow of the year-not a lot yet, but there was enough to cover the steps. Peace went out, felt the snow on her feet and immediately wanted to come back in. Siren ran out and rolled in it. Let me just say, curly girl with a coat full of snow and dirt and leaves- not so much my favorite thing at 5 am.

NOT a morning person

I am so not a morning person. Why, why, why are cardi's so often shown first thing? Granted, the dogs don't seem to have any issue at all with mornings. I get up and stagger to the door, they get up bouncing, leaping and talking all the way. Of course part of my staggering may have to do with the fact that the 2 puppies just do not understand that leaping at my butt, crashing into the back of my legs, and tripping me does not get the door opened faster.

Peace is entered into her first show soon. And of course both days the ring time is 8. But I guess its easier to stagger around the breed ring than that first agility run of the day! (We rarely if ever Q that first run- I count it as a success if I find all the obstacles!)

Have a good morning everyone!

Wordless Wednesday

Color quiz

Ok, you wont be able to click on this to try the test, as I couldnt get it to post with the actual color, so instead I made it a picture. But it's kinda fun and several people have tried it and felt it was pretty accurate. enjoy!

Siren's Home

I missed the peanut. After several hours of playing, both girls are pooped and calm. Love these kids.

Music

Music came to visit today. He is growing into a very nice looking boy. It sure is fun to see Grace's kids as they grow.

Siren at Lynns

Siren has always been a vocal pup- hence the name Siren. Apparently that has continued during her visit at Lynn's. I got an email from Lynn telling me that the other day while Lynn was making dinner, Siren started woofing a grumby growly bark. Repeatedly. When Lynn turned to see what it was she discovered that Siren was growling at the pan on the stove that was almost boiling over. What a good girl, and very well named. My little alarm.

Happy Halloween, and Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Grace, Scout, Moira, Fanny and River. It's hard to believe you are 3 already. So many accomplishments in such a short time. What a great group.

Happy Halloween to everyone also.

Conformation class

Tonight Peace and I have our first conformation class. I am so glad, because I cannot remember at all what I did to train Grace. Grace is so easy to show too, somehow I taught her to self stack, usually on her own, but with a fix it command if needed. I just cannot remember how I did it?? Old age I guess.

Peace

She sure is growing up! I thought since Siren got to have her picture up, Peace should too.

Siren at Camp Lynn

It was Sirens turn this week to go away visiting. I miss the little stinker SO much! I adore this dog. She may not be perfect, she may have a horribly curly coat and a high tail, but she also has so much more. She is smart, thoughtful, creative and very loving. She is a very quick learner and she wants to learn new thing. She really is my dream girl. Thanks Lynn, for letting her visit and for sending me some pictures.

Rally today

Today Grace and I went and played rally. With her second attempt at Rally Advanced, we earned our second leg. One more to go. Then our friend Pam was there also with her 2 girls. It was thier first time and they both Q'd in Rally Novice! Very nice job too.

Graces kids

We are still missing one picture, but I will add it when it comes. Aren't they all just darling! I am also going to post this to the website.

Rally this weekend

This weekend we are going to try for Grace's 2nd leg in Rally Advanced. In Rochester the jump kind of threw her, but that really was my fault as we had only practiced with a bar jump and the panel was intimidating. So we have practiced that a bit this week. Grace is a girl that pretty much does what she wants to do, so it will be interesting to see which dog gets to the trial that day, the one who earned a 71 score or the one who earned a 98? She can, and has, gone either way!

It will also be fun as a couple of friends will be trying thier first attempts at Rally with thier cardi's. I really hope they have a good time, as I am hoping they will want to do the APDT rally in January with me. The more corgis, the merrier I think.

In thinking about the APDT trial, this year they are also doing some St. Huberts Obedience that same weekend. I am thinking that maybe that would be a good first trial for Siren. She will still be pretty young, so that environment where I can reward her in the ring would be motivating I think. She is such a funny girl, I love working with her. Well, I guess I really better get a training schedule going for all of them, so maybe I will be better at actually getting out and working them.

Wordless Wednesday

My step-son Loren just completed his basic training. We are so very proud of him. Now on to more specialized training. We miss him, but wish him great success.

Although we were not able to travel to visit him and attend his graduation, I heard his first request was Mountain Dew and Taco Bell. Somethings never change...

Handspun Yarn

Isn't this just lovely? Handspun merino and alpaca. I had to have it, the colors just called to me, so I ordered it. I havent knit since I was in grade school, but I guess I will be learning again. I love Etsy, you can find some wonderful handcrafted work.

I am thinking scarf, as I highly doubt I will be able to do anything else!

A little Blood...

Mom! Someone's bleeding. There's blood on Peace! HELP!!

OK, I was in the next room sitting at the computer. No one had yelped, the pups were running around like the wild kids they are, so I am not too worried. I go look, and yup, Peace has blood smeared all around her chest and neck, and my son is sitting there staring at the blood on his hand. It's not hardly enough to see, but I am sure it felt wet. I pop open Sirens mouth and there is a hole with blood oozing out where her bottom canine fell out.

I sure am glad it was nothing major if the sight of a little smear will cause him to shut down and stare at his hands. Laughing just a little. But I am glad he cares enough to worry.

Wordle

That was fun! Try it at http://wordle.net/

Magic and the babies

This is Magic and his babies. From the time that the babies were tiny, pink featherless creatures up to today. As soon as the tiny babies would peep in the incubator, he would run and find me-MOM come the babies need you! He would lay on the couch for hours watching the babies, if they started to cry for feeding, Magic would whine. When I would start making baby food, he would run back and forth between me and the babies. I swear, all the while telling me to hurry up and telling them that it's coming. I learned to feed babies with a corgi head tucked up under my arm supervising. Although we didn't let Magic lick the babies, he occasionally managed to get a swipe in, to clean off a dirty beak.

As the babies started to fledge, we were worried about him chasing or stepping on the babies, so we tried to keep him away from them, but it didn't work. He was just frantic to be near his babies. As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about. He continued to watch over the little birds. If one landed on the floor during flight practice, not only would Magic go watch over it, he would actually stand over the top of them, so no one else could step on them. Often the little birds would just land on him, and he would reach back and give them a kiss while they climbed all over him. To this day, if one of the small birds lands on the floor, Magic will protect them-which is a good thing because we are sure Grace would eat them if she got the chance.

Wordless Wednesday

Peace is home

Peace was away at Camp Lynn's for the last couple of weeks. She did really well, and I hear she was a very good girl. She wrestled and chased with Logan and Libby, and practiced her cuddles with Lynn and Rachel. She grew too. I hadn't really noticed how much Siren grew these last few weeks, but seeing Peace again really made it noticable. Siren is thrilled she is home and the 2 of them haven't stopped playing yet. I am guessing that tomorrow morning I will be waking them up instead of them waking me up. Updated pictures tomorrow when its daytime.

Doggiepalooza

Today Magic, Siren, Dave and I went to Doggiepalooza. Its a big gathering in a local park with lots of miniature things to do- a small rally course, a small earthdog maze, disc dog demos, and lots of vendors. Both Magic and Siren ran around in the big dog free play area- Magic loved it of course and played chase and ball with anyone he could convince to throw the darn ball. Siren did well, until a big mastiff walked over and sniffed her, then she got a little nervous. So we took her instead to the small dog play area where she wondered around, but really didn't play. So we went back to the big dog play area and she ran around a bit more and did great. Magic tried dock diving, and while its not his favorite thing to do, if does involve retreiving so he is willing to give it a shot.
But Magic's all time favorite thing in the world does seem to be lure coursing. He loves the lure coursing. He watches from outside the course and screams and whines. When the lure is close by he screams, when its on the far side he whines. I am going to have to find a time to take him over to the course in Wisconsin so he can really run. All in all a very fun day today. No pictures because silly me, I forgot to take the camera that was sitting on the chair waiting to go!

I think Ben has it Right.

I can only hope we find God again before it is too late!!

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

Puppy comparison

Grace as a baby.

Talie her daughter. It will be interesting to see how she grows.

Wordless Wednesday

How to make obedience fun?

I like obedience, and I like rally. Magic seems to do OK with rally, but seems to hate traditional heeling and obedience. He just shuts down on me, you can watch the happiness leave his eyes. I have been trying for a while to find a way to help Magic like heeling. He will pick up again a bit when we get to the recalls and jumps, but even there he is not as enthusiastic as he normally is when we are in a show environment. He does great at home and when I can chatter at him, but not good at all when I have to be quiet. Obviously I messed something up for him and I dont know how to fix it. I am really worried that I will do the same thing with Siren. I so badly want her to enjoy it. Any suggestions??

It was a fun day today, started out misty and overcast, but the cool temp was nice.

We earned 3 out 6 Q's today. I was feeling badly about missing a couple until another competitor pointed out the Q rate in novice in those classes was less than 30%. We had one off course(Magic has always loved the ramp, and it was way more temping than the weaves), one bailoff and one run where we were a second over time.

Here we are clearly leaping over the yellow. But, it was our only missed contact all day, so I wasn't too disappointed.

Magic was not happy with about one thing though, I brought that pesky puppy Siren along and he had to share the x-pen.

Darryl and David took pictures and I hope had a good time.

NADAC tomorrow

A year ago Magic and I attended our first agility trial, and ran 3 classes, tunnellers, jumpers and hoopers. NQ in jumpers, it was the first one we ran and although we didnt Q, it was still fun. Then tunnellers where we earned our first qualifying score. Last hoopers, where we had a nice run, but were .02 seconds over time. It was fun, and I was hooked. Tomorrow we are attending the same trial, a year later. Now, we dont trial as often as I would like, and our success rate could be better, but over this year the boy has earned his O-TN-N, NAC, and TG-N. We have managed to earn at least one Q in every NADAC class along the way. He also earned a CL1-F in CPE, and has a few legs toward AKC too. I know we are not the best team out there, but darn I sure do love paying with this boy and I am proud of all our accomplishments.

Peace at Camp Lynn's

Sure looks like she is having a good time! Thanks Lynn and Rachel.