OK I did it.

I entered Grace. When I told her last night she yodelled back at me, wowoooo, hopefully that is a good sign.  Stay tuned for details....

Do I dare (edited)

enter Grace in the Rally trial to try for that last RA leg?   We just need a score or 71....

Thanks for the thoughts, I probably should explain why I question trying.  Grace is a wonderful dog, but she definately has a mind of her own, not to mention her own agenda.  She has expressed her dissapointment in the judges courses by complaining when asked to do certain exercises.  Anyone remember the 3 steps back exercise  -step one  Bark bark grumble, sit, 2 steps back BARK bark grumble slow sit.  3 steps back Grumble moan sit BARK BARK bark(last one directed at the judge). Or the APDT trial where in the first run she managed to score a negative amount, but then in the next score a 204.

Now, in all honesty, her first RA leg was a 71 which she did in front of her breeder in Richester last year, making me oh so proud! (sarcasm) Her second was a 86 (i think), and she hasnt given me one of those no score runs since then, but with Grace it is always a possibility!

Another weekend passed

 This weekend was much busier than last.  Fall is in the air and fall chores have taken over a bit.  I did some canning, and some cleaning.  Started clearing out the garden of the things beyond their prime.  Made a wonderful soup for dinner last night with all the bits and peices, a handful of the last beans, some chard, kale, and cabbage, zucchini, carrots, the last 2 ears of corn, and the last few ripe tomatos. Turned out to be a wonderful mess.
 The dogs spent the weekend chasing each other around the yard and barking. Did I say barking, I should have said BARKING!  Siren and Peace need to learn that the entire neighborhood is not their watch. Peace has gotten so much worse about the barking since she was attacked. I need to figure out a solution to this soon, as the more she barks, the more Siren barks and I live in close proximity to many other people.
 We really did no training again this weekend, bad me.  I am finding it overwhelming lately, although maybe its just that there are so many things I feel I need to get done that I am spinning my wheels from job to job and not accomplishing as much as I would like. Need to get that under control too.  Part of it is probably my anemia though.  Its been a year since my last IV infusions, and I can tell the iron level is getting to the low point. I really don't want to do more infusions, but the exhaustion is starting and infusions are the only real option. But I am going to do all I can to forestall it - I am thinking liver for dinner, and as many other iron rich foods as I can.  (Honestly, I know it doesn't help much, my body just doesn't absorb it like it should, but if I can delay treatment a few months all the better)
 I hope everyone has a good week!  Hug a dog, its good for you.

Fur Flyin'

AARG! Wouldn't you know it, we are a week away from our next dog show. You know the one where I was praying we could pick up that last point.  Well guess who will be nekkid as a newborn by then.  Last night when I got home I reached down to give little miss Peace a cuddle, and handfuls of hair just sort of blew out. It was like a hair tornado! My vacuum can't even keep up.  Ok maybe a bit of an exageration, but honestly my pant legs were red.   Dang it.

Helping a friend

Last night I spent the evening helping out a friend of mine.  She has a wire fox terrier who needs 3 little points to be finished. This boy is very nice structurally.  A couple of years ago when I first met this boy he was a happy, super, confident boy complete with a terrier attitude.  She sent him off for 6 months with a handler.  In that time he was rarely shown, (as documented by the entry results showing absent time and time again).  He came home with one or two points, as a quivering shaking mess of a dog.  Oh, he is fine outside of a show/training environment, but bring him into a training situation or a show and he stresses out, big time.  Now during the last year and a half, he has made some improvement, and has been being handled by a different local handler, and had some successes, earning both his majors and just needing a few points to finish. 

Buster likes me, at least he used to, until I made the mistake of taking him to the drop in conformation class last night to practice and see if we could work together.  See, I am going to show him in a few weeks, since his regular handler isn't available for a while. Lets just say that after the class (which we ended early to not stress him as much) he wouldnt come and see me at all. We plan on visiting and practicing a little more over the next couple of weeks.  Poor guy, he gets so nervous about being in the ring, he shuts down.  I really like the little stinker, so I hope he will forgive me.

Speaking of forgiveness, my 4 at home sure were not happy about those other dog smells!  MOM how could you!

Is that for me?

Lazy Weekend

Everyone needs a totally lazy weekend occasionally right? Well, I know I did. The dogs lazed around, and so did the people. I did a few errands, things that you know just need to be done, but nothing exciting. I did pick up a few more grapes at the farmers market and made some grape jam. The smell of grape jam is just so wonderful, I wish my house smelled like that all the time. I refuse to use the massive amounts of sugar that these recipes call for, so I usually use much less. It means my end result is less firm, but it is way more fruity. I put a few things on the dehydrator, but also really lazily. Lazy relaxing. Wish I could have a whole week of doing nothing.

Agility tonight

Tonight Magic and I had a really good night! We nailed the course the first time, with only one not so pretty cross, that although ugly, we made work. The second time through I overthought it and really mucked it up, but thats OK. We had 2 successful teeters, so hopefully teeter fear is over and done with. We had 2 sets of 12 weaves, popped the 10th pole the second time, but I think it was because he knew that the tunnel was coming so was taking the short cut. And we nailed every contact tonight even though he was running with speed. Yeah!
Unfortunately, it was our last class for a few months. We will be able to go back to agility this winter though. It was good to end class on a good note. Maybe we will try to get in a trial or two during the class hiatus, just so we dont totally lose what we have learned.

Canning Crazy

So lately I have been canning like crazy. Not big amounts of anything really, but 4-8 jars of various stuff. Tonight it was apple jelly, made the juice to do grape jelly tomorrow, used the pulp from the grapes to make grapplesauce, and also made spiced applesauce. Bought a watermelon for watermelon pickles later this week. Now, I want to be honest, I have never even eaten a watermelon pickle so I have no idea why I want to make them, but heck, I had never had a pickled green bean, and my husband has already eaten most of those that I canned earlier this year. I don't have a pressure canner, so am limited on what I can do, but I have also used the dehydrator quite a bit this year.
If I lived where I could have a giant garden I would love it! I think I was really meant to be a farmer.

Todays show

First let me say sorry, I didn't post all the winners from yesterday- BOB was Emily and Picasso, and BOS was Barb and Molly. Emily also picked up a group 4 yesterday.

Today at the RMKC show BOB- Emily and Picasso, WD - Mike and Norman, WB, BOW & BOS was Peace for another point. One more to go.

The Wright County Kennel Club show in Hutchinson is coming up, closes this week. Personally I would love to see us come up with a nice large entry since on Sunday we will have a breeder judge, Leah James. So anyone looking to travel a little, Minnesota in the fall is beautiful- come visit.

A good show day

We had a good day today at the Rochester Kennel Club show. Peace earned 1 point for going Winners. She also was best Bred By. Music earned 2 points with Winners and Best of Winners. That makes 8 for Music and 13 for Peace.

Show Pics

The pictures from a couple of weeks ago finally came. These didnt turn out too badly, for a change. I usually look really bad, but these, not horrible. Peace looks pretty good, although her front legs are a little forward, I have seen and done worse!

Back to training

A while back I listed some training plans, and then life got in the way, and training sort of stopped. Well, really completely stopped, truth be told. So now that I have the (neverending)curtains done, I hope to get back to some training. Maybe I will be better at it if I set some goals?
So, Grace is going to finish her RA and her UKC RL1by the end of the year. Siren is going to attempt pre-novice sometime before the end of the year. (OK, honestly, I am not expecting success, just an attempt.) Magic will try to finish his UKC RL1. Peace gets a break as I really would just be happy finishing her Ch this year. She will work on not racing around the ring, some slower speed would be nice for her.

Can it be done, sure, will it? Time will tell.

Des Moines Dog Show

What a fun weekend in Des Moines. It was fun to show with so many people who don't often get up this way. And fun to see so many competitors too. There were no repeat winners this weekend either, not in the class or for breed.

Saturday Music was WD for 2 points. Peace was reserve both days.

I will say that todays judging was interesting to say the least. In a couple of the classes, she sort of threw her hands up, shrugged her shoulders, and acted like she didn't know what to do, and then just placed them in catalog order. It was just sort of odd seeming. When she got to winners though, she didn't have any trouble, and put up a lovely puppy. Nice judge and all, it just was odd.

David and I had a good time. It was a nice day for a drive back home. We dropped Music off with his Mom, got to see Bella and Vegas again too.

Long Holiday Weekend

Wishing everyone a safe, fun and happy long holiday weekend. Music, Peace and I are traveling down to Des Moines for the dog show. Maybe David too, but he doesnt yet know about the Sunday work schedule so who knows. I am taking some knitting along, since we show firs thing in the morning. Although last time I took some with I never touched it. We'll see.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Company tonight

Music came to visit tonight. He is going to a show with us this weekend. The girls are thrilled he is here. Joyce dropped him off tonight as she was close by picking up her darling new boy at the airport. This is Vegas.

He is just a darling boy. Handled the trip really well, came in the house here found a bone and settled right in. Joyce seems thrilled.

Curtains for a soccer field

Someday I need to learn to keep my thoughts to myself and not be so willing to help out. Many of the local clubs here in Minneapolis have their summer agility trials at the indoor soccer fields. Its a great venue, enough crating room, cool and comfortable with A/C. The facility has 2 fields with a bleacher section in the middle. However, the inside of the field is walled with glass. All of the clubs cover the glass for dog agility, often with paper, or tarps or even sheets hung over the wall. Which really isn't a problem, but paper tears, it has to come off between the trails and of course we often run out and wind up using other things. So smart me, at our clubs event, I made the smart statement that you know, it wouldn't be hard to make a re-usable curtain. Cheap muslin, some velcro and there you go. So now, I am making some soccer field curtains. OK, its really not a difficult project, but it is time consuming. I have to make 4 curtains for sure, 2 @ 28 feet long, and 2 @ 40 feet long. Possibly another 2 depending on how far around the field they want to go. The curtain itself is pretty easy, but all the tabs that will be needed to attach the curtain to the cable is the time consuming part. I calculated I need 54 tabs, all with velcro sewn on. Each tab is 1 inch wide, by 3 inches long, and it feels like they are taking me forever. I am only about half done with the tabs, not including attaching the velcro.
So, if I disappear for a while, come find me I may be lost somewhere under yards of muslin!