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.