23 March 2008 ~ What a Weekend!!! LAA-Bronze Ivie!! More DAM Wins!!

Summary:
Ivie:
2 for 4 in Snooker for Snooker Champion Gold - SCH-Gold - title (35 Masters Snookers Q's)
2nd place DAM Team Tournament
Q in Grand Prix, 2nd & Q in Steeplechase
2 for 2 in Pairs
4 for 4 in Gamblers
2 for 4 in Jumpers
Earned her Lifetime Achievement Award Bronze - LAA-Bronze - title (150 Masters Q's, with at least 15 in each class, including Tournaments)

Josie:
3 for 4 in Snooker for Snooker Champion - SCH - title (10 Masters Snookers Q's)
1st place DAM Team Tournament (her 3rd DAM win) for Tournament Master - TM - title (10 Tournament Q's)
1 for 2 in Standard (that leaves only 1 Standard Q to ADCH!!!!!!!!)
1 for 2 in Pairs
2 for 4 in Gamblers
2 for 4 in Jumpers

Thursday...
Gamblers -- Josie & Ivie both Q'd. After 4 days of running I forget placements, but those were abundant as well as normally when we Q, we place, but...I'm too tired to sort through ribbon labels tonight. Suffice it to say, they both Q'd :)
Standard -- Josie Q'd!!!!!!!! That was #4...just ONE MORE...that's ALL she needs for ADCH!!! 1 week shy of 2 years old, and only ONE Q away from ADCH. Unbelievable. Ivie ran with my friend Donna and did NOT to well for her. She had no respect for her at all!! She normally does really well running for other people -- not sure what her problem was!! (I ran her dog before Josie to 'practice', so I let her run Ivie in trade)
Snooker -- Both girls Q, Josie SuperQ's!!
Pairs -- Josie & Ivie both Q'd
Jumpers -- Ivie Q'd!!! (OMG!!!!!!!!) It was a LOVELY run, and OMG if she didn't just nail it!! Josie had a GORGEOUS run but I cued a pull-in too late and she came around the jump, so I just continued on for the E, to keep the flow. GOOD girlie...did just as I asked of her!!

Friday...
Gamblers -- Josie gets SO CLOSE but I cue her late for a jump and she jumps the STANTION/WING and ticks it going over. OUCH!!! Ivie Q'd and placed.
Team Standard -- Ivie placed 3rd and Josie took 4th! After this round, Josie's team was in 1st (team took 1st, 2nd, and 4th places in 22") and Ivie's team was in 5th (one dog on her team E'd; missed a pole her owner didn't notice!!)
Snooker -- both girls did the same WEIRD off course thing that I'll really have to analyze the video on WHY they both did the SAME thing when I handled it differently!! No Q's. Weird!!
Team Snooker -- Josie had a GREAT opening but I miffed it in the close on #3. Ivie had a great opening and got to #6 in the close. If it hadn't been for some weird spots we woulda closed for sure. After Snooker Ivie's team moved to 1st and Josie's team sat in 2nd.
Jumpers -- This was a FUN, and FAST course. It had a 4-jump serpentine in it!! I did some CRAZY front crosses. The crowd was really rowdy and was cheering everyone on. I also ran a friend's dog, and she was GORGEOUS in the run, but I lost my footing, was tripping trying to catch myself the whole last line out (4 straight jumps) and I fell right at the last jump and she took that bar -- darn!! It was a BAD FALL, too...It HURT!!! My left leg is currently blue from the knee all the way to the middle of my shin. It feels SPECIAL........
Team Jumpers -- Both girls did very well. In fact, IVIE WON TEAM JUMPERS...WTF?????? Josie was right on her tail, about a half second behind her. I was so proud of them!!! After this run, Ivie's team was in 3rd, and Josie's team moved to 1st.

Saturday...
Team Gamblers -- Both girls did great and racked up a lot of points!! One dog on Ivie's team got the most points of ALL the dogs (a 12" papillon!!!) so that moved us to 1st and Josie's team to 2nd.
Gamblers -- Ivie ran with a 12 year old girl she'd never met before and she did so well for her!! The girl was really nervous and she sorta shut down on Ivie in the middle of the opening when she accidentally pulled Ivie outta the weaves, but they went on to Q on a gamble that NOT a lot of dogs got!! Ivie's certainly a gamblin' dog!! I flubbed it with Josie, taking too long to position the gamble and she did it but was .21 over time. Oh well -- she's a great gamblin' dog, too!! :)
Grand Prix -- Ivie had a WONDERFUL run, and got herself a Q!! After watching dogs run, I realized I had ZERO chance of getting to a front cross I'd planned in my walk-thru. :( I messed it up with Josie and ended up costing us a Q. It's okay, though, she was a GOOD girl!!!
Pairs -- Ivie Q'd with Paula and Zen for the 2nd time in a row!! Yay Black/white babes!!! :)
Steeplechase -- Ivie ran beautifully and took 2nd & Q in the 22" class. Josie ran in 26" for the first time ever and kept her toes up!! I didn't realize it until afterwards that she had never seen a long jump set for the 26" dogs before -- whoops!! It's 16" longer than for the 22" dogs and she didn't have a problem with it at all!!! I've recently lost about 20lb so my pants I was wearing...were sorta falling off...so when I was pulling them up during Josie's run, I was really late calling her to turn for a couple jumps, causing a bar 1 time. She had the FASTEST TIME in her class, though!!!! Good enough for 3rd place!! WOooWWwoooooo!!! GOOD JOB for her first time at 26"!!! (her first bar all weekend -- I'm okay with that!!!)
Snooker -- Josie got a SuperQ, with a 6,7,7 plan -- there were too many slower dogs needing SQ's -- I couldn't take them away doing 3 7's but I got one anyway -- oh well!! :)
Jumpers -- Donna ran Ivie and she got an R or 2. As I was about to go in the ring, someone walked up and said "I want to run Josie" so she did. Josie had NEVER met this woman before in her life. She was not really 'Josie speed' but she was a respectable speed and sped up as the run went on. The handler did a funny front cross and Josie took 1 bar but I was SO proud of my little baby running so well for someone else -- especially someone she didn't know!! It was by no means an easy course!!! I was expecting an R or 2 but just the one bar -- I was so proud of her!! :)

Sunday...
Team Relay -- Josie's team was fast and clean, winning the relay by a mile. Ivie's team had 5 faults on each leg. Ivie's team ended up placing 2nd (which was great since Elise Pinney's dog Fame needed it for his ADCH!!!) and Josie's team WON the DAM tournament!! That's THREE team tournaments she's played in...and THREE team tournaments she's WON!!! What a phenom she is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was Josie's Tournament Master (TM) title!!!
Gamblers -- Josie and Ivie both, once again, made a really hard gamble look like a piece of cake!! It was U-tunnel-out weave-outjump-outFURTHERjump. LOTS of gamblin' dogs missed it, but my girls both got it! That made Ivie 4/4 on Gambles for the weekend, and that was her 11th Q of the weekend, and since she came into the weekend with 139 Masters Q's...those 11 made it her Lifetime Achievement Award - Bronze (LAA-Bronze) title!!!!!
Standard -- I ran my friend's dog and Q'd with her. Then it was Josie's ADCH on the line. I was SO nervous, and she totally sensed it. She broke her SLS for the 1st time EVER...and came around the first jump, for an R. We didn't even get to run the EASY course...our ADCH course :( :( :( I was totally out of it for Ivie's run. Poor girl.
Steeple Round 2 -- I had to run my friend's dog, Ivie, AND Josie in the finals. I had someone else run Ivie and I ran Josie in 26" and took 1st place for the first place prize money!! 26 INCHES!! YAY baby dog!! (She once again did NOT tick the long jump even though LOTS of 22" dogs did!!!)
Snooker -- Both girls Q'd on another 6,7,7 plan!! This was Josie's Snooker Champion (SCH) title!!! This was Ivie's Snooker Champion Gold (SCH-Gold) title!!!
Jumpers -- BOTH GIRLS Q'D IN JUMPERS!!!! OH MY!!!! WHAT A WEEKEND!!!

Three weeks until our next USDAA show...
ADCH, here we come!!!!!!!! :)

16 March 2008 ~ Local USDAA fun!!

Great times with my Lock-Eye girlies this weekend! We had the last two weeks off...we were all SO ready to get back to it!!

I've been training and starting to trial with a running Aframe for Josie. She seems to like it better than lying down at the end, and naturally strides through the yellow far better just running it. She was leaping a little too high (in the yellow but still too high for comfort) with the 4OTF on the frame and I think it was just not natural once she sped up to the WARP SPEED that she now runs at!! Her speed now is like a gazillion times faster than when I trained those lovely contacts of hers!!! So, running aframe is the name of the game right now. She still sort of pauses at the bottom, which is good to get a head check once she's 'landed'. Notice the AIR she gets over that frame!! Whooooooaa Nelly!!

Ivie had some really SPECTACULAR runs, she and I are REALLY clicking as a team lately!! Too bad there's no video of our AWESOME Standard Q from Saturday. It was a thing of beauty, it truly was!!!
Sharon, you will especially appreciate the 'celebrity handler' in today's Jumpers run. You'll see what I mean...:')

8 March 2008 ~ Josie is the smartest dog...ever!!

The description: (as seen on the video page)
4 days ago, I introduced Josie to picking up a toy and putting it in a basket. She mastered that in under 5 minutes.

That then morphed into the Easter Egg Hunt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua46O7zPxmY) later that evening when I was inspired by all the festive bits on sale when I stopped on my way home from work.

The end goal of it all was to be able to put a coin (a quarter, specifically) into a small opening of a jar/bottle (like Shebang did here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBHEItIwP-Y.

In order to do this, I would have to get Josie comfortable having something metal in her mouth. I knew from previous experience of asking her to bring me my glasses that this would probably be the trickiest part of the trick. So my wonderful agility instructor (http://www.youtube.com/user/eedogs) loaned me a teeny tiny metal dumbbell. I might have to get a picture of Josie holding it because it's darn funny! It's like shih-tzu sized or something :) It rests snug on her cheeks when she carries it ;)

Within a couple minutes she was retrieving that like a champ. I began to think to myself "well, this coin in the bottle trick might not be such a pie in the sky idea after all!"

To get her used to having something small in her mouth and not swallowing it, I had her put ice cubes into a cup. She thought this was fun until her mouth was frozen and she sat there and sneezed for a few minutes. I decided she had the idea, and introduced the quarter this evening. She somehow knew exactly what I wanted, and started retrieving it immediately. Good pup!

I didn't tape the first bit of training tonight, and I wish I had as she got the 'finished product' four other times at the end of the first session with the big bottle! Oh well :)

The first part of this video is showing the 'end product' and then I go through explaining how I trained it from the introduction of the glass container to the end.

If you would like any further explanation just send me an e-mail. I'll answer in as much detail as I can!

I hope you enjoy! We'll perfect this and be back to share sometime in the future. I just wanted to share our progress :)

5 March 2008 ~ Clicker-ing Rocks!!

I had to go home over lunch to meet my new cleaning lady at the house to give her a key and show her around, so while I was waiting for her, I decided to introduce the 'put that in the bin' trick. So I got a ball and a small basket and first shaped the nose going into the box (that took about 10 seconds), called it 'basket'. Then I told her to get the ball, and put it in the basket. The first couple times she tried she'd drop the ball outside the basket, stick her nose in the basket, then pick the ball back up and put it in. I clicked this only twice as it was close (she had taken the ball TO the basket, after all), but not the end product. The times she did this, though, when she went to pick the ball back up she'd give a little 'irritated grunt'. It's SO cute when she does this. Hehe. She made the same noise the other day when we were working on the toy discrimination. When she wasn't getting it right away she'd do the frustrated noise when she finally understood. It's quite endearing. Anyway, after about 5 minutes of this I was in the middle of the living room, the basket was on one end of the room, and I'd throw the ball to the other side of the room. I'd say 'get the ball and put it in the basket' and she'd dutifully do just what I asked. I was really quite impressed that she did it so quickly!!

Now I'd like to see anyone train that THAT quickly, without a clicker!! Clicker-trained dogs are simply amazing!

THEN.
On my way home from work I decided to stop off a the store for something. I saw all these easter eggs and easter baskets. I got the great idea of putting her new trick with these items. So I took them home and after the carpet cleaners left, I sat down with eggs and basket and in just a few minutes, we had mastered that as well!! It was already dark by this point, though, so I plan to videotape Josie's easter egg hunt tomorrow after work. The outdoor lighting will be so much better for the video :)

We are performing for a child's birthday party on Saturday and I plan to do an easter egg hunt for them. I think they'd like it. We'll also be doing some 'backyard agility' but they will be pretty young children, so I think the easter egg hunt will be a hit. Just one of those ideas that sort of evolved from nothing in no time! :) I'm excited about it.

The END RESULT, the whole reason why I wanted to train her to put anything away to begin with was to be like Ivie's former sister in her former home, and to be able to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBHEItIwP-Y So we borrowed a metal dumbbell from my agility instructor tonight to get her used to having metal stuff in her mouth as she's not that keen on it. In only a few minutes I had her not only taking it into her mouth but going all the way across the room and retrieving it and putting it into the easter basket along with the eggs!! Now I just need to get her to pick up a quarter and to target to the mouth of a Snapple bottle and we'll have it.

Gosh, I do so LOVE these clicker trained dogs!! THANKS for starting them off with the wonderful clicker beginnings, Michelle!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think I could have done all this without you!!!!!!! :o) This dog ROCKS!!!

28 February 2008 ~ Beautiful day with my Jos-Monk

What a lovely day today was!!

I took Josie to work with me today. Now, I couldn't take her *into*work, but I took her *to* work. She slept in the car in the parking garage (it was a lovely 50degree day, she was fine!) for the first 4 hours, until I got off for the afternoon. When I got back to the car I was greeted by the sweetest 'sleepy face' ever. I just LOVE this little wonderdog. She warms my heart with all her special little ways she has about her.

I had a while to 'waste' over my lunch hour so Josie and I sat at Starbucks and I read my book. (I'm reading Cell by Stephen King, almost done -- great book!!) Then I took her with me to an appointment I had, and we again had a few hours to kill until the next place we had to be. We were in downtown Dallas so I thought we'd swing by the dog park, someplace I NEVER go. It's actually not a bad park, it's on the lake which Josie loves a bunch :) I just don't like that it gets so overrun with dogs and their idiot owners. But today I felt it was only right to let her run a little since she'd been such a good girl in the car. For the next two hours I sat at the dog park on a bench and read my book while Josie found sucker after sucker to throw the ball for her time after time. She had an absolute blast and everyone just fell for her. They would all throw the ball for her a few times, then come over to me to kinda say 'is it okay?' and then proceed to throw it a bunch more times.

Just now the poor dear was sitting here licking a rear paw. She tore off a good bit of a paw pad on her right rear paw. Poor babe!!

I just had a blast with her today. She's so much fun to be around, and I love how she just lights up every room she's in, be it a room or a park or anywhere else. She's just the most wonderfullest girlie doggie in the whole wide world and I love her to itty bitty bits :o)

That is all, really. :)

25 February 2008 ~ ADCH-Bronze Ivie!!

It was a hairy Jumpers course, but we pulled through and came out with 3rd & Q for her ADCH-Bronze!! I am SO thrilled!!! :)
Someone signed her bar 'pretty good for a free dog' - hahaha!! Almost exactly 11 months ago, Ivie earned her ADCH. She promptly injured her toe and took 4 months off from showing. For only being back 7 months and getting her ADCH-Bronze already...I am SO proud of her. !!!

We were really working nicely as a team this weekend. She felt awesome to run and our times we evidence that I was feeling it right! Her GP voucher-winning run was 6.1yps!!!

That's all the updating for tonight...I'm plum exhausted!!

Last run of the weekend, so all the equipment's already in the trailer!!

 

24 February 2008 ~ Ivie wins 22" GP and earns her first ever voucher!!

Before I tell you the funniest thing ever, the thing that made me lose my voice I laughed so much, I must preface it with everything that happened today. The show was AWESOME.
First was Pairs and Josie teamed with Annie & Jack West and turned in a PAIRS COURSE time of 28.10!!! Are you kidding me?!?! It was insanely fast!! So we smacked that one outta the park, got 1st & Q and all that jazz.

Then Grand Prix. Chuck Thompson (some of you may know him) ran first with Crash and they had a NICE run, but the timer malfunctioned. So he got to rerun for time (this time knocking a bar, to no fault). In GP?!?! Whatever. So he got to run again, and ran it in 27.60. Josie ran a few dogs after him and I lost some time by chickening out on a front before the dogwalk, so she clocked a 28.34 I think. Ivie was the last 22" dog to run. She had a killer run, and even though Crash & Chuck had had a 'practice run' beforehand, Ivie smacked down a 27.01sec run!!! WOWZA!!!! SO...Ivie got her first Grand Prix voucher!! Snatched it outta Chuck's hand at the last possible second!! WOOHOO!!!! GO IVERS!! Josie came in 3rd, still very respectable :) Everyone said that when Ivie took off the start line in GP that she just had rockets coming out her rear end. Oh MY. Unfortunately this is the one run not on video. Doh!! Woulda liked to have seen those rockets :)

Then Standard. I ran Josie first and since I'd need to go 2 for 2 in Standard this weekend to get Josie's ADCH, I was feeling a lot of pressure. That didn't sit well with me and I ended up causing a refusal in an otherwise LOVELY run. DOH!!! Ivie was SMOKIN' again, then the jump before the end she took the obvious off course jump after the dogwalk instead of the not-as-obvious finish jump. I SCREAMED this terrible noise, then said 'SERIOUSLY?!?!?!' The judge laughed at me :') She would have won that class if not for the flub up. UGH. Ah well :)

Steeplechase was a nice, fun, FAST course. Josie ran it in 28.95sec. That was a whole second faster than ANY OTHER DOG. Where did those turbo-boosters come from??!!??!! Josie took the bar after the weaves on pass 2, though, so she ended up in 3rd. Ivie had a 29.97sec run (2nd fastest time -- go LESnider girls!!!) and came in 1st!! So I have a 1st and a 3rd seed in tomorrow's finals. Ivie really was running SO nice, and I got gutsy and tried a crazy front cross out of a tunnel. I made it.Phew!! (I have it on video!!)

Snooker was a total screw up on MY part...twice. Let's not talk about it. :)

If you know me, you know I hate Jumpers. Last class of the day...
Josie ran first, and smacked down a 2nd & Q!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!! That was her JM title!!! WOOHOO!!!! That leaves only 2 Standards for ADCH. 2 Standards, are you kidding me?!?! WOW. She's my BABY...my BABY!!!! Ivie had an AWESOME, once again turbo-charged run going and then somehow we miscommunicated and got a R. It was SO.SAD. :'(

You know, Ivie didn't knock a SINGLE bar today!! I'm so happy with that!!! I love Iver, she's a wonderful girlie -- and now she has a voucher to prove how awesome she is on course!! :)

Okay, so the funny stuff :)
So I went to dinner with some friends tonight. We had tex-mex, complete with the obligatory mass quantity of margaritas to go on top of all the wine we had at the show ;) It was a GORGEOUS day, and a gorgeous evening. About 60degrees out, a nice cool breeze, all that jazz. So we ate real near the show site for those that were staying there, whereas Donna and I are at her house about 20 miles away. So we leave Josie, Ivie, Siryn, and her Pomeranian named Puppy (the one seen snuggling with Ivie in pictures a couple months back) in the car while we eat. They're all REALLY tired, so of course all they're going to do is sleep.
My car is a small black SUV with personalized animal-friendly license plates and a magnet that has a picture of a crouching BC and says "Border Collie -- Everything Else Is Just a Dog".
We got back to the car after dinner and there's a McDonald's napkin folded and put under my windshield. & this is what is says, & I quote...:

"If you were really pet friendly why did you lock up your dogs in you trick to go eat dinner?"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH!!! As if *I* am not pet friendly...?!?!?! Perhaps the mere fact that the dogs are OUT with me while I find myself in the position of NEEDing to eat...would suggest perhaps I was doing something with them? I don't know, like spending thousands of dollars a month on their upkeep, well-being, and extracurricular activities???! I mean, are you serious?!?!
It was me, Donna, Elizabeth Armstrong and Renee King and we just kept passing this note back and forth and reading it out loud and laughing our BUTTS off!!! I mean...can it GET any more pet friendly than me?? Really?!?! Ah...the thought just made us all nearly bust open at the seams!!

So, that's my funny story. Someone thinks I'm not very 'pet friendly' HAHAHHHHAAA!!!

17 February 2008 ~ Josie goes MAD!!

I decided at the last minute to make a "there & back" trip to a USDAA show 3 hours away this weekend. I entered the show at the end of last week, just wanting another shot at getting a Standard for Josie's MAD. I trekked it out there and boy am I ever glad I did!!

We came away with a Standard, a Relay, and a Gamble. The Standard earned her MAD (Master Agility Dog) title, and the Relay earned her RM (Relay Master) title!!! Definitely a good last minute decision!!

I only took Josie. I had never taken her to a trial by herself, either to compete or just to watch. She's always been one of at least two. Oh MY did she ever enjoy herself!! Between the agility, the soccer-playing (her BC buddy, who is a full sibling to Grace's Click, has taught her the joys of playing with a soccer ball), the hiking through the woods and streams...she is one tired girlie tonight!!

I am so proud of the MAD, I could burst! She's only 3 Q's away...tick tick tick...

Here's some video from the weekend...first run is the MAD run !!

12 February 2008 ~ The World's Most Annoying Toy

 

11 February 2008 ~ The Weekend of the Ivernator!!

 

The weekend in Words:

For IVIE...
Friday:
2nd & Q in Pairs,
2nd & Q in Gamblers,
no Q in Snooker.
Saturday:
Ran HER ½ of pairs beautifully but her partner E'd,
Q'd in Grand Prix (would have been in 3rd place but knocked the 1st bar because she 'schooched' on her SLS),
3rd & Q in Steeplechase
1st & Q in Standard
No Q in Gamblers (my mistake!)
Sunday:
2nd & Q in Standard
Q in Snooker
4th & Q in Jumpers
3rd in Steeplechase round2
I was so proud of her!!! She earned her Standard Champion Bronze title as well as her Tournament Master Silver titles this weekend. (The first bar in Grand Prix was the ONLY bar she knocked all weekend!!)

She is only ONE JUMPERS Q AWAY from ADCH-Bronze! I am so proud of her!!

Josie had a bunch of GREAT runs, too. She came in 3rd & Q in Jumpers on Sunday…and got a 3rd & Q in Pairs on Friday. She was just one little mistake out of a lot of Q's. I sent her off course in an otherwise LOVELY Standard run on a HARD course on Saturday. Then she just couldn't get up over this one jump that was in a crater in Sunday's standard. She knocked it with her tail – #@)%_%*$%)()@#@!!! (The ONLY bar she knocked all weekend!!) She was a good, good, girl, though, and we now need 3Std, 1Jmp, & 1Relay...for...you know!!!

She had an AWESOME pairs run on Saturday but her partner off-coursed. That's the name of the game I suppose :)

6 February 2008 ~ Holy Crap, Batman! I'm ashamed to say...

Last night I taught Josie a totally cute version of 'shame' in like 5 clicks. That was ridiculously easy. (before you ask, no, I didn't tape it...I've been wholly unsuccessful teaching it with other dogs in the past and was not expecting anything better with this dog!!) WTF has been holding me back?? I simply free-shaped it and my GAWD is it ever cute!! I hope to get some video of it this weekend.

Anyway. If nothing else, this potential TV opportunity will certainly expand mine and Josie's "bag of tricks". We worked for a while, for her dinner, last night and tonight. I decided to just do kibble because, well, let's face it, that's a lot more sanitary than raw chicken bits!! I also taught her 'bang bang' (play dead) and how to 'woof' on command. Three commands in one night -- not bad! Then tonight I taught her to roll over from a stand, to stand from a sit or down, and to shame from a stand. The shame is reliable and uber cute. OMG it's frickin' adorable, I can't get over it!!

&, seriously, how she picked it up in UNDER A MINUTE is insane. Forget the damn tape on the nose stuff -- that's for the birds!! The method I dreamed up in the car the other day is far superior!!! I shall go back and retrain Ivie and try to train Maddie to do this too.
I simply told her to down. Then ignored her and she sniffed the ground around her, when she got close to the paw, I clicked. I did that twice, then I put a kibble on her left paw. When she went to eat it, I clicked. Then she touched her paw with her nose, so I clicked again. Then she put her paw on her noise -- VOILA!! MY WORD that was quick!!! I love it!!!

Now I say "are you ashamed??" and she puts paw on her snout. Oh, word...this dog beats all else!!

Not to mentionthis tiny little girl has a freakin' HUGE bark for a little girl!!! It's hilarious :)

3 February 2008 ~ KFA USDAA fun!!

The DAM team courses were pretty brutal. I won't do a play-by-play on those...but suffice it to say...you'll understand if you take a look at the course maps! (In order that they ran...who in the world puts Jumpers first??) My girls placed in nearly all of the events, both of them did. YAY girlies!! :) YAY for top ten tournament points :)

Team Jumpers
Team Gamblers
Team Snooker
Team Standard
Team Relay (Josie's team won the relay, and won the tournament, overall!! Ivie's team won the bronze medal!!)

Saturday Started off with Masters Gamblers. Ivie was first. I took her over jump-tire-Aframe-weave-tunnel and instead of coming into me to get back into the weaves, she negated her gamble by shooting off over the jump with a 2 on it. DANGIT!! So, of course, we end up with a LOT of points, and she aces the gamble...since she alreade negated it in the opening --- perfect!! *sigh* Josie did a great opening, and LISTENED so as NOT to negate her gamble...then I stepped on the line while she was doing the gamble. Doh!!! 1 dog Q'd, and Ivie ended up in 2nd place since she had the most points out of any dog in the opening. Silly negating gamble dog!!

Masters Standard was 2nd on Saturday. I ran Ivie first and she popped out at pole 10 in the weaves. WTF?? Ivie does not pop out of weave poles!! (About 15 dogs in the class popped out at that same pole -- there was SOMEthing not right about those poles!) Of course after that she ran beautifully, and flawlessly!! She really held her 2O2O contacts nicely ALL weekend long. She was a good, good girlie!! Josie got a refusal between the teeter and the tunnel because I did a weird crossy-thingie, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had lovely contacts and was otherwise wonderful!! :)

Grand Prix came upon us and I was actaully a little nervous (I'm never nervous) -- I really wanted to get a 'bye' since both girls are 100% qualified for Nationals already. Ivie ran it beautifully but took 1 bar. Her first bar all weekend -- so I can't complain!! She still got another Q to add to her collection -- just 1 more tournament leg for Tournament Master Silver for the Invernator!! :) Josie went out there and NAILED it. She had awesome contacts (which I held), beautiful turns, amazing lines, lightning-fast weave poles...and the fastest time of anyone!!! Josie won 1st place, a Q, and a voucher!! So she won the 'bye' which puts her 1 step closer to making the finals at Nationals this year!! Yahoo!!!!

Snooker ended our Saturday, and I did a rather non-stellar job with both my girls. Neither Q'd, but, then again, NO DOG Q'd on this course. Not ONE. The first place dog in 22" had 30pts and Ivie had 28pts which was good enough for second place. We were all floored. These are all dogs in the top ten of Snooker years running...I don't know WHAT was up with this course but it was terrible!! Ivie did 6,6,7 and then knocked the triple because I was all discomobulated and trying to save from getting an R. Dang... Josie did 6,6,7 and instead of the 2, I sent her back over that red right there...wtg Emily! Sometimes...I swear...:')

Sunday started with Standard -- that is not my favourite way to start a day, but, it is what it is :) Josie turned in a smokin' time that was 4sec faster than the only other dog to Q, which was a 26" dog. Ivie got a refusal/run-out at 16. It was set up where the jumps were more parallel than in the course map. It was a ridiculous little turn and if the dogs were clean up until that point, most were either knocking 15, going into the tunnel for an E, or getting a R at 16. Oh well -- Ivie still had the fastest non-Q'ing time so Ivie took 2nd place to Josie's 1st!! :)

Next was Masters Pairs. I was not a huge fan of this course, like...at all. Only one team Q'd -- that was Ivie & Riggs - for a 1st & Q!! Due to a combination of faults, Josie & her partner Detour (Riggs' 1/2 brother) were 0.17sec from Q'ing -- DANGIT!! Josie's pair got 2nd place to Ivie's 1st!!

Masters Jumpers finished off the weekend. Josie & Ivie both Q'd, and took 1st & 2nd place!! They were the ONLY two Masters dogs to Q in Jumpers!! Since it was the only effective handling strategy, I'll go over it with you :) I lead out to 3, post-turn to 5 (with a pre-cue/front cross wrap) then went up through the middle to 6 and rear-crossed. Then I put in a LSFC (landing side front cross) after 9. Dog on right through 13, then another LSFC between 14/15. Then a left/right/left to the end! GOSH I wish I had this one on video!! After the trial, the judge came up and told me what a great job I did on that course. She must have been expecting another 0% Q-rate on this course, like Standard and Snooker yesterday!! Josie ran 143yds of this course in 22.30sec...that makes it a 6.4yps run!!! That's pretty speedy, if I do say so myself!!

I'm SO thrilled with how we did this weekend!! I have another 3-day show this coming weekend. Josie is now 3 Standards, 2 Jumpers, and 2 Relays from ADCH. WOW. :)

2 February 2008 ~ The BABY WINS!!

Today was SO wonderful...

The highlight of the day...
My baby Josie WON GRAND PRIX!! Which means she gets a voucher to get into the 2nd round at the Regional!! Wowza!!
She had a wonderfully smokin' run, and kicked some serious booty. I am SO proud of her!!!

Yahooooooooooo!!!

1 February 2008 ~ KFA USDAA, Day 1

We still have 2 days to go, but...

Today was so great!!! It was only 5 team runs but we had a lot of good things in those runs!! Both girls placed in the top 3 in all the team classes!! My Josie dropped some jaws from people that hadn't seen her run since she turne 18mo.

Josie had the 2nd fastest time in Jumpers. Only Crash (a Top Ten Jumpers dog) beat her by .5sec. Ivie also had a pretty good time, only half a second behind Josie. Good Ivers! :) This is remarkable since Jumpers is my nemesis :) ;)

Josie's team name was "Got Baggage?" because every dog on the team brought 'baggage'. Josie is a puppy. Heaux (black lab) is coming into season ANY DAY, and walks like she has a pineapple between her legs. Zip (BC) has a MACH2 but has never done a single day of USDAA before.
& Ivie's team name was "Wave of Destruction" because her two teammates were Crash (BC) and Krusher (Mini Schnauzer).

My two teams were in 1st/2nd all day long :) It was a lot of fun!!! Ivie's team was actually in first place for the first 3 classes. Crash E'd Standard, so we went to 2nd and Josie's team went to first. Then Josie's team won relay so we solidified our win! Ivie went WAY out of her way to E relay, so that dropped us to 3rd place in the end. Both Q'd and got medals though -- yippee!!! :)

We got lots of tournaments points, too, because my girls placed in most of the classes - Ivie won Team Gamblers :) YAY Ivers :)

Anyway, we had a great time, and I did as well as I could!! Two Q's for 2 runs today :) Each girl had the possibility of one Q...and each got one!! Doesn't get any better than that!!

I am SO excited about this win for Josie -- this is her 2nd try at team...her 2nd Q in team...and her 2nd WIN in team!!! We didn't even set out to 'win' this time (or last!!!). Josie & Heaux are both already Q'd for Nationals, and the AKC-dog had never jumped 22" before :-P To end up winning the whole thing -- SO EXCITING!!! Gosh, I LOVE THESE Lock-Eye girlies of mine!!!!! They are all MINE MINE MINE!!! :) SPECTACULAR Girlies!!!!!!!!!!!

27 January 2008 ~ Training Today

It was a lovely day outside. A balmy 43 degrees in the heat of the day :) I decided to take the girls out to the training field to let off some steam since it was raining and yucky all day yesterday which meant limited play time.

I took some video of Josie & Ivie on contacts, etc. I took a lot of 'fun' footage but have not edited much of it yet. That just takes so long!!! I'll work on it tomorrow probably :) I got some great video of my Madison being a JRT. She cracks me up :)

Josie's dogwalk:


Ivie's agility plus ball-play:

23 January 2008 ~ HHAT USDAA...in Pictures :)

This past weekend we showed at a local USDAA show. It was 23degrees before the wind chill on Saturday morning, and the facility is always cooler inside than outside in the winter, and the opposite in the summer -- how convenient! Anyway...my girls and I had a blast and I found some pictures that a photographer took. I love the one of Ivie where you can see her breath!! So cooooold!!

This first one is my favourite. It's just so 'her'.

& this second one is so 'Ivie'


(click for full size below)

Cold BREATH!!!

2 January 2008 ~ HHAT USDAA Weekend Results...In Video :)

Josie:

Ivie:

21 January 2008 ~ Control Thyself!!

So I was clicker-training Josie to do useful things like close boxes and what-not the other day… I went upstairs for some reason and left Jos downstairs. She normally follows me, but didn't this time, knowing full well the Living Room is where the clicker training takes place, and she was hoping for more! (I think my phone was ringing upstairs or something?)

Anyway, so I realized while I was up there that I had left Josie unattended with the bowl of training treats just sitting there on the ground for the taking. (bad mom!!) So I peaked over the ledge into the living room (it's open from the upstairs hallway), all sneaky-like. I saw her walk over to the bowl of treats, take a big sniff, and turn her head, trot away, and lay down on her dog bed, staring at the treats from across the room. She had every opportunity to just munch them down but she made the right choice!!

I mean…most kids don't have that much self control with a cookie jar – and my little baby doggie just chooses the right thing to do in every situation. Could she BE any more perfect?? I of course gave her treats once I got downstairs…that behaviour deserved reward!
I also put her 'hot dog retrieve' to the test this weekend. Someone had dropped an entire piece of string cheese on the ground between the practice jumps. I told her to go get it, and bring it to me. So she did, without so much as thinking about nibbling on it, and happily traded me the entire piece of cheese…for a little game of tuggie! I haven't even worked that trick in nearly a year!!

What an ANGEL she truly is!! So…when does cloning become common place, anyway?

17 January 2008 ~ My Suzie Q

In the midst of everything that's been going on lately (not dog related...therefore not interesting, right?!), I forgot to tell the story of how Miss SuzieQ found her forever home! So here goes...

Over the last year I have noticed my SuzieQ growing increasingly...unhappy.
All she wants in life is to sit around the house and be lazy and be petted and fed!! I'm more active, I like to do active, interractive things with the girls -- sitting around and petting gets boring for me long before it's boring for SuzieQ!

She also dislikes Ivie -- a lot. She always grumbled at Ivie when she'd walk by, and on occasion she'd lash out at her for absolutely no reason. So there was always this tension between the two of them.

When I travel, I always leave SuzieQ & Madison (my JRT) with a friend of mine here in Dallas who loves them like her own. While I was trialing for 5 days over New Years, my friends' brother and his family came to stay with her too. They fell in LOVE with her. I had been going back and forth about rehoming her for the past 6 months or so. Only thing is I was always so picky in my 'must haves' for her new home I figured I'd just never find a home suitable and never took it any further. Well, they just adored her. The mom (Susie) is a stay-at-home housewife and mother and just wanted a dog she could lay around on the couch with, etc. How perfect!! They are very well off and can give her all the care and attention and special foods that she needs. She's allergic to grains so I made them promise to stick to a grain-free diet and strict feeding instructions since she has the tendency to pork up, that's the corgi in her!!

So, they came and picked her up from the Dallas area and took her back to Houston last weekend. The dynamic in my house has drastically changed for the better and everyone is happier. My JRT always got shoved outta the way by SuzieQ and she's lovin' life right now! Plus she LOVES Josie, and wants to play with Ivie, and without the Fun Police (SuzieQ) around to stop her, she gets to play all the time!

It was a hard decision to let her go on to a new home, but I know I did my part in her life. I rescued her the day she was to be put down. She had heartworms, so I had them treated. She was TOTALLY unsocial, and now she's a therapy dog. She couldn't see another dog on leash and not try to eat it, and now she's an agility dog competing at the Masters level. I think I played my part in her life, and I think she played an important one in mine, and my last favour to her was to let her 'retire' to this wonderful home where she will get all the love and attention she could ever want. They renamed her CindyQ since the mom's name is Susie :) (Cindy, short for Cinderella!!)

So, that's my story!! SuzieQ - gone but not forgotten!!

16 January 2008 ~ She's So Tricky...

Just a short little montage of some Josie tricks, with a bout of extreme cuteness at the end.

 

15 January 2008 ~ Josie kicks NADAC's ass

Went to a 'FUN-Raiser' in Calera, OK with Jamie last weekend. I wanted to work contacts, so I just entered Standard, and 2 rounds of jumpers since I was there already! I couldn't bring myself to pay for Hoopers...aye!!

Josie did very well -- it was funny; she was SO confused...kept looking for me for direction and I kept telling her "no, it's all right -- just run in a straight line!!" She's never really been run on courses like this much, and at 6yps, they sure were fun while they lasted!! :)

 

(Yes, in the one run she's REALLY close to the first jump, but hey...at least I know she can do it now!! I accidentally said 'ok' to the judge and she thought I meant she could get up, so I had to re-down her. Silly girl -- takes every 'ok' so literally!!)

This weekend it's back to the nitty gritty with 22" jumps and tight Masters courses -- she and Ivie have been snooze queens since the New Years Marathon show -- just hikes at the park and frisbee games intermixed with lots of lazy nap-times these last couple weeks. Oh yes, and, of course, fun clicker training :)

14 January 2008 ~ Useful Josie!

I'll be enlisting her next year as I'm putting away all the Christmas decorations -- too bad I didn't think of this in early December!!

8 January 2008 ~ Josie Sits 'Pretty'

Josie's latest trick that we worked on over New Years is 'sit pretty'.
I SO wish I'd gotten the first night of training on video as it was HILARIOUS. The 2nd & 3rd sessions (both on night 2) were taped, though, and they're pretty funny at times as well. My friend's dogs ate ALL 7 brand new bags of training treats the first night when we were out to dinner, so we're training with honey nut cheerios. They keep getting stuck to Donna's hands, which is why Josie's having a hard time judging where to catch them. ;)

She's so cute with the FLAILING arms. We worked Ivie on it, too, but she was much more reserved about it. Josie's just a clown, through & through.

GOSH, I adore this dog -- we had endless laughs during these training sessions!! :)

Session2:


Session 3:

3 January 2008 ~ One for the History Books!

This weekend was one for the history books! I couldn't be more pleased with how we did if I tried. I will go into detail on how Josie did since it was such a great weekend for her, but I'll do the Q-synopsis first. Both girls are in all Masters classes, so I have left off the level descriptions to save a little redundancy :)

Josie: 1 Standard, 2Jumpers, 3 Snooker (2SQ's), 2 Gambles, 2 Relays, Grand Prix, Steeplechase, and DAM Team. (11 Q's & 2 Titles!!)
Ivie: 1 Standard, 1 Jumpers, 2 Snooker, 3 Gambles, Steeplechase (8 Q's & 1 Title!)

Now I'll sort the runs by day and hopefully keep everything in order!

Friday :
We had one of each titling round today.
We started off with Gamblers. This was a VERY hard gamble that I'm pretty sure only 1 or 2 people Q'd on. It was just a really tricky weave gamble. I usually love weave gambles! Neither girl got the Q. Bummer!
Next was Pairs. Josie paired with Siryn and we took 1st & Q!! Not many teams were making it through without E'ing because it was a seriously hard course with a bunch of off course potentials. I've never seen such a hard pairs couse! Ivie paired with Jenna and she decided to take an extra tunnel. Oh well. We were in good company with our E!!
Standard was next. The course was pretty tricky but I thought Josie and I would be able to navigate it. This time around, she missed a tire/weave discrimination I figured for sure was pretty obvious. I was wrong! Who chooses weaves over a tire?! Evidently, Josie does! Ivie had a gorgeous run but knocked the very last bar – zoiks!!
Then came Snooker. It was a totally bizarre Snooker course. I'll have to post it. I just can't even begin to explain it. I think Dave Hanson was trying to out-Woz the Woz, who was entered in the class!! Josie totally nailed the course even though I got lost at #7 and sent her around the back side of the jump. It was enough to earn a 2nd & Q though!! Ivie took an unfortunate off course on the way to the close. I have to remember she's not nearly as 'sticky' as Josie is!
We ended the day with Jumpers. It was a nice course but I thought for sure there were some traps I'd get stuck in. Luckily, I walked away with 2 Q's! BOTH my girls Q'd in Jumpers!! What a high!! I was on cloud 9 :)


Saturday :
We started off with Team Snooker. Both of Josie's teammates (Siryn & Amaze) did really well. Josie had an awesome opening earning all 7's, then I sent her at a terrible angle over jump #2 and she smacked the wing/stantion which rocked the whole jump and caused the bar to fall. All 3 of us together were enough, though, to put us in 1st place!! So cool to be in 1 st place in team! J Ivie got the max points so that went really well, but one of her teammates got a 0 point run, so we were in next-to-last place. Bummer.
Then it was on to Gamblers. This was a very easy gamble. Jump, come tunnel, up the dogwalk, and over a jump. Nothing tricky about that. For some reason I called Josie off the tunnel and caused a little spin (R!!), so no Q for her though her opening points were great and would have earned a 1st place ribbon. My fault, totally. Ivie got the gamble easily but was way wacky in the opening so we didn't get the points I'd hoped for. Still a Q!!
Standard was next. It was a really nice, easy course, and I thought for sure Josie would Q. Unfortunately, I did a stupid thing in the lead out and pulled her off of a jump to get a R. The rest of the run was GORGEOUS and with a very competitive time, too!! Oh well. Ivie did not Q, either.
Jumpers did not go well for either girl. For some reason Ivie knocked one bar, the double. That was uncalled for! Josie had an absolutely spectacular run going and I called her hard and pulled her right off of a jumper to get a R. Dangit!!! I need to keep my mouth SHUT.

Sunday :
Our team runs were first. Team Gamblers to warm up with. There were funky rules and it was a time gamble. Josie did very well, as did our teammates. Amaze was in 2nd or 3rd overall in points, so that helped a lot!! Again, we sat in first place after Gamblers. WOW, how neat! My baby dog's team ahead of Sterling, Jazz, & Reilly – not to mention everyone else!! Ivie did really well and her teammates did, too. We moved up out of next-to-last-place with this one :)
Team Standard was next. Siryn and Amaze both got out with 1 refusal each. Josie got a bogus refusal, then I pulled her out of the weaves (awesome), and then cause the same refusal that Amaze got. We were so far ahead, though, that that run only tightened the margin, and we held onto first place!! Go team go!! Ivie had a heartbreaking run where I thought I saved an off course, only to have her sneak past me and shoot into the tunnel anyway. It was so sad!!
Snooker was a good one and both girls did well in the opening. I meant to switch plans so that Ivie would not beat out Josie for a superQ but totally goofed on that, so while I was deciding how to mess Ivie up so she wouldn't overtake Josie, I sent Ivie wide around jump #2. Problem solved! Josie walked away with 2nd & SuperQ, though!! That was the final SuperQ she needed! Go baby dog, go!!
We then had another Pairs run. Josie teamed with Riggs and even with 15 faults between them they still pulled out a Q! That's #3 (she's 3 for 3 with 2 1st places!), only 2 more to go! :) Ivie had a GREAT pairs run but her draw partner E'd. Oh well – luck of the draw!!
Steeplechase Round 2 – Josie was well on her way to winning (she would have won by a couple seconds) but missed a weave entry about 5 times, costing her 11 seconds (I timed it!). She finished 8sec over the first place time. DANGIT I should have worked that entry harder!! So sad! Ivie gave me the big doggie finger and took an off course tunnel. Twit!!
Lastly was Jumpers, again. I again pulled Josie off of a jump. UGH. Ivie went off course all on her own accord. Rotten!

Monday :
We started off finishing up our team runs.
Team Jumpers was a nice course. Siryn & Amaze made it through faultless but not that speedy, both putting in 28.xx sec runs. Josie had a smokin' time, but she crept up on her start line stay, not leaving herself enough room, and knocked the first bar. Her time was THE FASTEST of all the dogs!! She had a 26.36sec time so even with the 1 bar her time+faults was very competitive. This was the last team round before relay, and wouldn't you know it…we were STILL in first place!!! But only by 3 points now – yikes!! Ivie had a nice run and just took 1 bar. Both her teammates had a few faults, too.
Team Relay , the final of the team classes, was up. We were sitting in first but sweating it. The 2nd place team (only team that could beat us unless we E'd relay – Sterling, Jazz, Reilly) went right before us. The pressure was off when Jazz E'd her portion of relay! We went out there and nailed it and ended up winning the relay by 5 seconds over the next team. This solidified our DAM TEAM WIN!!! (sidenote: even without the E on the other team, we still would have beaten them, according to the points) One of Ivie's teammates (the one with the 0pt Snooker run) needed the DAM Q for ADCH. That's ALL they needed. THEY E'd Standard, AND E'd relay, and had a 0pt Snooker run. Without the E in relay, though…she would have gotten her Q. How rotten is that?! I feel bad but I did my part and that's all I can do! Ivie already has her DAM Q for the year, so no biggie. I'm SO thrilled with Josie's WIN, though!! WOW!!
Still on the high from DAM, Gamblers was next. It appeared to be a sort of tricky gamble on paper but in practice it went quite nicely! With some rotten stinky contact calls in the opening, neither girl placed, but they both Q'd!!
Then it was Standard again. A pretty tricky course that not a lot of people were getting around clean on, unfortunately. Fortunately, though, BOTH my girls did it!! I held Josie's contacts a bit and she ended up in 3rd place behind Ivie by about 0.30 sec! It felt SO good to get that first Standard leg on Josie! Woohoo!!
By the time Jumpers rolled around, everyone was three sheets to the wind. I'd started celebrating pretty early considering we had WON team and gotten 2 Standard Q's!! When walking the course, you could smell the wine in the air – everyone had been drinking for several hours because there'd been some down time while Starters/Advanced ran J The course was nice, I liked it. I let Kerry Bowden (he runs a min pin) run Ivie. She worked REALLY well for him! She kept all the bars up and didn't get any refusals. He took his eye off of her for a split second and she shot off course, but otherwise it was gorgeous!! Josie fell hard on the concrete right before going in the ring, so she was a bit tentative at first which is why I think she took the 2nd bar. I then threw in some CRAZY crosses and had fun with it. She's not a 'bar knocker' so one bar here or there does not concern me. Especially not when I'm running her and I couldn't legally drive home!! ;)

Tuesday : Happy New Year!!
Tuesday was another amazing day!!
Gamblers was pretty simple. Glad we started with that after the night we all had the night before!! Ivie totally had the gamble but knocked the first bar by turning too harshly over it. Oh well – she earned GCH-Silver this weekend anyway! Josie got the gamble and came in 2nd place! That was her 5th Masters Gamblers Q, so she earned her GM title!! In only 3 shows at the Masters level!!
Grand Prix was next. It was a nice course and I planned to Q with both girls. Ivie crashed through a jump I pre-cued too hard for her. I have to remember she's not Josie!! Then I pulled too hard and caused a refusal 1 jump to the end. BAD handler!! *sigh* Josie had a GORGEOUS run. I got in her way and couldn't decide to front or rear cross a jump and my confusion caused a bar. Otherwise, a perfect run. She got her first GP Q!! 1 more and she'll be fully qualified for 2008 Nationals!! (Ivie's been Qualified for Nationals for a month or so already)
Last Snooker of the weekend. Ivie took 44 points (swung wide on the 7 in the close) and Josie took 58 for a lovely 2nd place and SuperQ!! That was her 5th Snooker Q (4th SuperQ!!), so that earned her her SM title!! WOW!!
Jumpers wrapped up the weekend (week??). It was the hardest, trickiest, most difficult Jumpers course I have ever seen. I figured there was NO way I was getting through it with either of them and nearly scratched and packed up and went home. But I'm a die hard, so I had to try! Ivie knocked a bar and then I sent her off course. Josie, on the other hand, was flawless!! She Q'd!! And she was only 0.50sec behind Sterling (who's now at 22") and Gerry Brown! That was her 25th run of the weekend! My little red girl is amazing!! That made her 4 for 4 on Tuesday. What a way to start 2008!!

1st place -- I still can't believe it!! :)

All in all, Josie earned 11 Q's this weekend. WOW is all I can say!! She's now 10 Q's from ADCH! GOOD Girlie!!!

Not only did we have a blast in the ring, but outside the ring was pretty spectacular as well!

On Saturday, someone had a remote controlled helicopter out in the big wide open concrete crating area. At first Josie didn't notice it but she I had her watch as it took off, so that took her eye to the flying object that stayed no more than about 6ft off the ground. Josie was enamored by it!! It was adorable! She made big, wide outruns, paced it, would turn back the other way when it turned. Sometimes she'd swoop in and bark at it, especially if it came anywhere near people. She was trying to protect us from it. The helicopter only has about 5min of flight time so it didn't last long but boy was it entertaining!! He brought it out again on Monday afternoon and Josie took right back to it. She had a grand ol' time! I know it's probably not the best thing to encourage her to herd remote controlled flying objects, but she was still under control, and would lie down when told, and called off of it when I asked her to, so I don't think it'll be a problem :)

As I mentioned earlier, everyone started 'celebrating' pretty early on Monday (New Years Eve). After the last run of the day (which was full of bloopers and people running dogs they'd never run and everyone trading dogs and handlers, and it was just a hoot!) we all sort of hung out and finished the last of our respective bottles of wine and some people danced, everyone sang. Then there was an impromptu 'doggie dash' where we turned the large open space (maybe ½ a football field?) behind where we were all crated into an indoor dog park, in a way. Josie immediately took to this b/w male border collie. They had the BEST time just racing around in these HUGE outruns. Josie'd turn on the turbo boosters and get ahead, barking at him as she passed, then she'd slow up and he'd charge ahead and bark as her as he passed…they just went back and forth, in an unending game of 'gotcha!'. It was PRECIOUS. I couldn't quit laughing!! :) It was a TON of fun. There were a lot of dogs – mostly border collies – in the 'doggie dash', romp n play. It was great to see them all getting along so great and having so much fun.

The girls were SO tired after the show!!!