A weekend of agility and herding

Kant and I spent Friday and Saturday in Albany at an AKC agility trial; Echo came along for the experience of the show. Kant and I had a great weekend. Every run was great and I felt we were a team. We qualified and finished our Excellent A Jumpers with Weaves title on Friday; now we are in Excellent B in all 3 classes. You can watch the run here.

In our other runs we made very minor errors but when you are in Excellent in AKC you have to be perfect. But Kant was listening and doing everything I asked and I was very happy with her. I am looking forward to doing the NADAC trial this weekend.

Echo did great meeting and greeting people and being as cute as ever. And she helped me shop and did great in the big crowd.

Sunday Lora’s Rocking Dog Ranch turned in to a working dogs party. The first time Echo and I went out she was doing great on her flanks and fetching and we are still working on the ‘stand”. After finally getting a few stands we ended that session. After doing some chores, talking to Lora, and thinking of ways to help Echo understand what I wanted on the stand we went back out for another little session. She started out a bit pushy but settled very nicely. I got her stands much faster and we ended after a couple great stands. And then it was Kant’s turn to herd. Last Tuesday I spent a wonderful learning day with Lynn Leach at Brigand’s Hide-out Sheep Camp and this was the first time Kant had herded since then. I wanted to work with Lynn to get some more strategy on a cross drive. I learned a lot about inside flanks and that Kant needs more work on that to be freer flanking and that should help with the coverage needed for a cross drive. Kant has a nice outrun but her lift is too pushy so Lora is helping me work on cleaning that up and again that should help with a cross drive. Overall it was a perfect day of working dogs, talking with friends, the sky was blue, the grass was green, and the baby lambs are TOO cute! And I had two tired blue dogs.

My baby turns 22

How do you spend your 22nd birthday?

With your mom for a wonderful dinner at Olive Garden.

But the best part was the Pomegranate Margarita Martini!

Happy 22nd Birthday Jordana!!!

From the staff at Olive Garden. Our waiter on the left made the perfect recommendation for the drink.

After the great Tuscan dinner we went out to the ranch so Jordana could see the babies and I gave my first shot!

Jordana spoiling the moms.

What a great birthday!!!

All the baby lambs are here

Friday the 13th was a lucky day at Rocking Dog Ranch, the last two ewes finally had their babies and Lora could go the Heppner herding trial. The first set had a pretty rough birth

but they are both alive and are doing great.

The second set of twins was a bit easier but they were smaller then the earlier set of twins.

This boy's brother is a bit camera shy.

The older baby lambs have their own feeder and they think that is great fun.

I spent the weekend going between the WAG USDAA agility trial and the Ranch to check on the new babies and feed. I was not running a dog at the agility trial but I was the Trial Chair so I could sneak out without being missed. The sun finally set on the Ranch and the weekend.

Scrapbooking Expo and Weekend

WOW! What an awesome weekend I had this past weekend at Lincoln City. A group of us have been going to the Scrapbooking Expo at the Portland Convention Center for several years; since Karen introduced it to me. This year Brenda and Dorothy came up with the idea to go to the beach for the weekend after the Expo with all our new stuff while we were inspired; what a great idea! They rented the greatest house that slept 12 for the 6 of us right on the beach just south of D River in Lincoln City. I organized beach retreats for several years and it was so nice to just bring stuff for one meal, my scraping stuff, and a table.

Brenda, Dorothy, Shana, Trinna, and I went to the Expo this year. We got there just before 10am and shopped and got inspired for 2 ½ hours. It seemed a bit smaller this year and a lot of the same stuff. The thing that I got and loved the best was a spinning page; I got two of them and used both of them over the weekend. We went to Chevy’s for lunch because they serve chips and salsa and after that much shopping you get a bit hungry and sometimes need food fast. Trinna went on back to Salem while the rest of us headed to the coast. Connie and Rhonda joined us at the coast after work.

When we got to the house Friday afternoon it was beautiful at the coast. We quickly unloaded our cars

and went for a walk on the beach.

After a great dinner of Clam Chowder and Salad from Captain Ron’s we scrapped in to the night.

Saturday I was pretty much rainy all day. And I scrapped all day just taking a breaks long enough to eat a great breakfast of fresh made muffins and fruit provided by Dorothy, lunch of awesome Caesar Salad created by Shana, and take a shower. The girls made a trip to the scrapbooking store but I could not even take the time to do that. I brought my chicken enchiladas for dinner. It was been 2 ½ years since I last scrapped and I was in the zone. I brought pictures from three events and got all the pictures I brought scrapped. I completed 37 pages with journaling making it a very productive weekend.

Sunday with no pictures left to scrap I enjoyed a wonderful skillet breakfast of sautéed vegetables and eggs fixed by Rhonda, packed up my stuff and enjoyed the view. I have a lot of scrapbooking stuff and it is not very organized. I am trying to get it more organized so I can be more mobile. I recently got some organizing totes that I brought empty and took them home organized. Lunch consisted of tasty wraps from Brenda and anything else left in the refrig. We were packed up and out of the house by 1:45. With a quick stop at Joann’s and the scrapbooking store I had a nice drive home with lots of time to think about the wonderful weekend I had and the new friends I met.

CAT NADAC Agility Trial Canby Oregon

This NADAC trial is very near and dear to me; it is the first agility trial that I went to in 2001 when I was in training and I went to volunteer and learn about agility, two years later it was the first trial that I competed in and it was the first trial that Kant went to when I first got her as a very young puppy. The arena at the fairgrounds is pretty dusty and in February it can be cold and muddy. It was fairly dry during the day this weekend; it did rain over night so it was a bit muddy and it was cold. But this is such a fun trial and this weekend was no exception. CAT puts on a nice trial and they got some good judges for this one.

Kant was entered in all 12 classes at this trial and Hershey was entered in 6 classes, 3 each day.

Jordana did not have to be to work until 11am so she was able to go Saturday morning and run Hershey in one class, Chances, before she had to leave for work. He did not qualify in any of the runs on Saturday.

Kant started out absolutely incredible on Saturday earning a much needed and not very often earned Jumpers Q giving us 90 Open Jumpers points; one more Q to go. I made the mistake during the celebration of that run to say that it did not matter what happened in the rest of the trial. I lied it did matter; Kant went on to drop a bar in Chances, Regular 1, and 2.

But the biggest surprise was when she went flying off the Dog Walk not coming close to getting a foot in the contact zone; she has not done that in years, we might have celebrated a bit too much for getting that Jumpers Q.

Kant did end the day with a Weavers Q so we were 2 out of 6 possible Qs on Saturday. This trial was on the small size and every time I finished a run they were walking my course in the other ring. I crated the dogs out of the car because of the mud in the arena so I spent the day running from the ring to the car to the ring to the car, putting a dog away, walking the course, getting a dog, get the picture. I came home Saturday afternoon and took a nap.

Sunday Jordana did not go with me so I ran both dogs. We did not have a very good day. Kant forgot what out and turn meant in Chances causing me to cross the line.

She knocked a bar on a beautiful Jumpers course and then went on to knocked bars in Regular 1 and 2. She did get another Weavers Q which ended up being the only Q of the day. In Tunnelers she took an off course tunnel not taking my que or here; she was so locked on that tunnel and I could have fallen down right in front of it and it would have just caused her to jump over me to get in the tunnel. When I saw that she was not coming in I did yell at her but then it did not matter. I had a competitor waiting to run outside the opposite side of the ring tell me my command was late which was a bull shit statement that she should have kept to herself but later I realized it was a huge compliment. I use to yell my commands and have worked very hard the last couple of years to be quiet and for her not hear my here command was perfect unlike some of our fellow competitors that scream frantically their commands. Kant ended Sunday with 1 out of 6 possible Qs.

Hershey struggles with working distance so Chances is a challenging class for him and we did not Q on Sunday.

He did go on to Q in both of his Open Regular classes; earning his Outstanding Open Agility Certificate.

Hershey is difficult for me to run; he knows how to push my buttons. He is almost 8 years old and has been doing agility since he was 9 months old. He is my first agility dog and I made more than a few mistakes with him but give me a break he knows what I want and choose not to do it or he argues with me instead of doing the obstacle.

Hershey over all did have a good Sunday with 2 out of 3 possible Qs. It was another busy day for me running from the car to a ring but even a not so good weekend of agility is better than a day at work or home doing chores.

Except for both our jumpers runs I felt that Kant and I were never in sync this weekend. I am not too worried about this and am looking forward to the next trial so see if Kant and I are a better team. If not then I will start to worry. I am now off to play with the dogs.

Agility photos provided by Joe Camp.