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.

25 Years

Today is our 25th anniversary. It hardly seems possible that so much time has gone by. And so many changes. Darryl was and still is a cat person. He really didn't care for dogs, but I said no dog, no me. Now he loves dogs. I wonder if he still thinks he made the right choice?

Peace went off to camp yesterday. She is spending a couple of weeks over at Lynn's house. Time to learn to live without Momma Grace or her sister Siren. I heard she had a good first night, and I am sure she is having a terrific time. Last night, Logan, Lynn's pretty red boy looked like he was very happy to have a guest to stay. Hopefully Peace won't drive him crazy, like she seems to do Magic! I never would have thought that one less dog from 5 to 4 would seem so different! Siren has been a little cuddlier- I wonder if she misses her?

wordless wednesday

Sleepy pups

I have to admit, I have been really bad about taking pictures lately. Mostly its been laziness, but also, these girls just never stop! And my camera only seems to catch little blurs. But I had 2 very tired pups after the show last night, so

here is an updated picture for you all.

I love weekends!

The weather was lovely here in Minnesota this weekend. The girls and I went and played at the UKC show a bit. We had a fun time, the girls got to practice being show dogs and I got to spend 2 days playing with my girls. The company at the shows was terrific, and the other competitors more friendly than competative. Couldn't really ask for more.

Grace was the only cardigan, but she did pick up one win with competition, with a group 3 placing today. Peace showed well both days, yesterday I handed her off to a friend and she took that pretty well, winning her class. In addition she was able to focus in the ring even though her sister was there too, and she was being handled by someone she just met. Talie(formerly Reba) also went along to practice this weekend, and although she had a bit harder time being focused, she did pretty darn good as today she picked up her first win with a Best Novice Puppy in Show. Her owner was pretty pleased. Siren went along today as well, although she is not destined for the conformation ring, I do hope to do obedience with her so we practiced a little heeling in that environment. She received a very nice compliment from one of the judges about how well she was doing too.

Well time to go grill some dinner, I smell the steaks calling.

The weekend approaches

Finally! It has been a rough and busy week. And its going to be a busy weekend too, but thats OK. There is another UKC show this weekend, so I will be taking puppies for socialization and fun practice time. Its funny how puppies grow. 2 weeks ago, Peace was looking lovely, balanced and very pretty. Right now, she has started a growth spurt and she is looking gangly and funny.
Siren on the other hand, has not really had an awkward stage yet. Time will tell what the end result will be I guess.

Both girls have graduated their puppy kindergarten now. Now I will have to look into some beginning obedience for them, but first I think we will be having puppy camp time and the girls will be going away visiting. I want them to learn to be apart so both girls will be going away to camp. Which reminds me I need to get in touch with some people to take them for a while. Busy Busy Busy.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, enjoy the fall weather and hug your pups.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday In Rochester

Well, I have to say that Saturday was a hoot. Marla, Grace's breeder was up here visiting and showing with her was a riot. We learned alot and laughed all day and well into the evening. In the breed ring, as I expected Grace didn't do anything, but really she is still missing quite a bit of hair. And in all honesty I only took her for fun.
The best part of the day was that Diana's boy, Dandy finished his championship. He picked up a nice 4 point major with his BOW win, which means he finished with 3 majors and a few smaller wins. (hey, I actually put one point on him this spring.) Garrett's girl Zoe got the girl points. her breeder was there as well and was very happy, I think the whole building heard her scream of excitement!
Then came Brace obedience. I have been practicing with them together, and they did a pretty good job, with a few problems, but nothing horrible. If it were a regular class we wouldnt have passed, but it was good experience and that is what I wanted there.
Then we had Magic in Graduate Novice. He earned a 182.5 if I remember correctly. I knew he would have issues with heeling and he did. I worried he woudl have issues with mouthing and dropping the dumbell but he didnt so that was good. All recalls were good, although overall he really shows that he doesnt care for obedience.
In the Rally Advanced ring, though Grace certainly showed Marla just what a character she can be! Let's just say it was not a steller performance, but heck I am not complaining. Grace hasn't been out since before she was bred and she was super happy to be out. She refused the jump both tries, and I realized that she hadn't ever seen a panel jump so that was my fault totally. At home we practice with bars, and when she was at agility training last winter, we didnt have panels there either as it was the winter site. Then after that she was squirrelly, jumping up to bump me and being a goof. But she did all the other excercises and once she calmed herself down finished nicely. We managed a mercy Q, and actually got 4th place beating the other 71 point finisher for 4th place. (she and I laughed and laughed together afterward too). Kind of wish I had pictures of this one as she was being goofy because you sure could see that she was enjoying herself immensely.
After the show, a bunch of us got together and laughed and ate and had a really good time. Its so much fun when you have a group of really great people together.

A picture from the UKC show

The pictures from the UKC show came and wow are they bad. Here is one of the few I could tolerate, once adjusted and cropped. In all of the pictures with the judge, the photographer cut her in half, so I I will just show you one of the better pictures of Peace by herself!

Dog Show tomorrow

Tomorrow all the corgi's and I are going to Rochester for the dog show. Grace is entered in breed. It's really just for fun as I have no thoughts of her winning, she is still rather missing her britches, but she loves the dog show so why not. And as long as I was wasting money on entry fees that I realize we have no possibility of success with, I decided we would enter graduate novice with Magic, Brace obedience with Magic and Grace and rally advance with Grace. Now, of course the 2 non regular classes are just for fun, (I know odd sense of fun, humiliation in the ring) but Rally Advanced may be a stretch for Grace. Grace is a funny girl, sometimes she is so good, but other times she is so naughty. I am really hoping for the good girl tomorrow. I suppose it will depend on how mad she gets when we have her bath and do nails! Time will tell.

The pups are coming along too. I must be nuts.

Wordless Wednesday

UKC Show

Well today Peace and I went and played at the UKC show. UKC has a non licensed class for 3-6 month puppies, so we decided to give it a try. UKC shows generally are smaller than AKC here in Minnesota, but they are a bit more relaxed and usually hold 2 shows a day. There weren't a lot of puppies, but Peace won Best Novice Puppy in Show in both shows. She was really tired by the end, and I am not sure she really had fun, but I sure did. Hopefully by the next UKC show, Grace will have enough hair back that she can go play too.

Training, training and more training!

Ok, I admit I am not the most energetic person, and I really am basically lazy. I really should have thought more carefully about the training issue with 2 puppies. See, originally I was only keeping one pup-Siren. Her coat as a pup was straight, thick and full but straight. We loved her attitude and I really liked her best overall of the girls. So we decided that she was the pup we were keeping. I started working with her at around 8 weeks and now at almost 4 months old, she has a nice little heel, a fairly good come, a consistant sit and the quickest flop into a down of all my dogs. I love this little girl.

Peace on the other hand, is JUST like her mother. Those that know Grace I am sure are already laughing. Peace chooses when to recognize her name. Come is a wish, sit is an option and well, we haven't even considered a down yet. She has a fabulous gopher sit though! Do you think we can win any cute points?

Did I mention Train Wreck???

Yup, it was a train wreck. In jumpers we got 2 refusals, one at the weaves and one where he spinned around to find me. In standard he jumped his contact on the dog walk and took a sliding run right off the table. However, by late afternoon when he was hot and crabby, we did manage a Q in FAST. The timer malfunctioned and we were probably over time, but the judge said it was a couple of seconds and we had 8 points extra so we got the Q anyways. Here is a link to the photos.
http://crystalimagepetphotography.com/Rochester-Op-Nov-Std8-30-08-www/bg_img_3174.html

All performance aside, I had a very nice day playing with Magic and visiting with friends, so all in all it was great.