Too Spooky For Words!!!

Jordana, Stephen, and I had a great time carving pumpkins for Halloween this year.

I cleaned out the three pumpkins that Jordana picked out and baked the pumpkin seeds. They turned out very good!! We had picked up a carving book that had patterns with eyes.

I wanted to stack the pumpkins so I put a small hole in the bottom of each one. That made candle placement a bit tricky but it all worked out.

We each picked the pattern we wanted and then picked the pumpkin it would fit best on. We only have one set of tools so we had to wait for someone else to be done.

Everyone did an awesome job and had a great time!!!

And of course I could not pass up getting my Halloween picture with the dogs.

Happy Howloween!!

WAG NADAC October Trial

October 16th – 18th was the Willamette Agility Group’s NADAC Trial. Earlier in this month NADAC announced that the Championships were going to be back in Gillette Wyoming in 2010 and Jordana and I want to go again! So we looked at the requirement and what it would take to have Hershey run in the Double Digit Division, Kant in the Veterans Division, and PITA & Echo in the Skilled Regular Division. We have some work ahead of us. Since Jordana has to work weekends for the rest of the year I said I would run her dogs so we put Hershey in on Saturday and PITA in on Sunday. And of course I ran my dogs both days. That added up to 28 runs for me!!
The weather was perfect for agility, rain was predicted for Friday night and all day Saturday but that did not happen and there was just a brief but intense rain shower Saturday afternoon. And Sunday was the most beautiful fall day with all the leaves changing and blue sky! The Trial Committee did an awesome job of keeping things running smoothly and provided lots of fun. They asked all of us that had agility flags to bring them and they hung them along the far side of the arena; it looked amazing. On Sunday they presented the first time runners with a cake to celebrate their plunge in to NADAC! Waggers truly are the best and they know how to put on a trial!!

Brags: Friday night was one round of Hoopers where Kant was running for the second time in Elite and Echo was in Novice; they both did amazing and Q’d. Saturday I ran Hershey in both rounds of Open Regular, we had a great run in Round 1 and Q’d but he could not get his dogwalk contact in Round 2 so only 1 Q for Hershey.

Kant continued to establish her membership in the one bar club knocking one bar in all 4 Regulars, Saturday’s Jumpers, and Chances. We could not get the Sunday Chances distance and directional. Thank goodness for those non-jumping classes, Kant Qualified in Weavers, Touch’N’Go, and Tunnelers. She also Q’d in Hoopers on Sunday earning her Elite Hoopers Title.

But the BIGGEST brag is we did get a Jumpers Q on Sunday, only 6 more to go until our NATCh!!! Those Jumpers Qs just make the whole weekend!!! Echo and I struggled on Saturday; she does not do well if I am not confident on the course. She knocked bars and had off courses in Jumpers and both Regulars on Saturday. She did manage to get her first Weavers Q with a run that did not go as I had planned. Sunday we were a much better team, she did knock a bar in Jumpers and had an off course in one of the Regulars but she was way more focused. She did Q in one of the Regulars and had the best Tunnelers run finishing less than 1 second behind Kant’s time and running 6.25 yards per second. She also Q’d in Hooper with a run that only lasted 17.18 seconds.

On Sunday PITA got to run. Jordana came down to run her in Jumpers before she went to work; they had a great run but PITA took a tunnel before she was suppose to so no Q on that run. I ran her in both Regulars, in Round 1 we had an off course (those dang tunnels) and we got a Q in Round 2 after I finally got PITA to quit obsessing with meeting the judge and do agility with me. That Q finished PITA’s Novice Agility Certificate.

I had a blast running all the dogs and was very excited that I survived! And I was pleased with each and every dog and almost every run!!!!

Joe Camp and his photographs were missed!

AKC Herding Trial

Saturday morning, October 3rd, Kant, Echo, and I were loaded up in the car for another road trip. We went to Fido’s Farm in Olympia Washington for the Willamette Valley Herding Club’s AKC Herding Trial. When we arrived it was a drizzly morning and everything including the sheep was wet. I watched some of the A Course Cattle runs from the barn where it was dry and the cattle runs were about all you could see from there. Echo was running in her first Pre-Trial Test in the afternoon. About lunch time the rain stopped and I went down and watch a few A course runs. Then it was time for PT, Echo was the first dog to run so I did not get to see how the sheep were but I also had no time to stress. The judge was a bit too helpful and did not let me handle Echo like I wanted, I just felt I could not tell the judge to keep quiet so Echo was moving more then I liked and did not settle in. I was pleased with our run overall, I felt she was a nice distance off the sheep and her stand was good.

I could not believe how nervous I was. We were done by 3:30, after a long play time in the big field across the street we headed for dinner and the hotel. We all slept well that night.

Sunday morning was a bit foggy but no rain all day and in the afternoon the sun actually came out. Kant was running in Intermediate A Course and Started B Course, and Echo had day 2 of PT. Kant was 2nd to last in A course and did very well, she was 1 of only 2 dogs that Q’d in the class. It was a Come Bye outrun which is not Kant’s best side and she was a little tight but had a beautiful lift and fetch and a nice tight turn around the post. We had a little trouble getting started to the Y Chute but got all the sheep there with very few points lost, the drive to the Z Chute was great, and also to the Hold Pen. I still struggle with strategy for removing the sheep from the pen and getting them to the Cross Drive. I had Kant remove the sheep from the pen and it was perfect and they were heading down the fence for the cross drive and a little too much push pressure and not enough time to get around to cover and they headed straight through the cross drive panels to the exhaust gate. Kant did a great job of holding the gate and the repen was perfect. We do not trial much and my nervousness shows but I was so happy with how well Kant did. It was then time for Echo to have her second PT run. I had hoped it would be better then the day before since I knew this judge would not be so helpful. We were first in PT again but they ran 2 HT runs first. We got through the course but no at all like I had wanted. I do know if it was because I let Echo get away with so much in the first run but she was definitely out there for herself. We will be working on teamwork! Our last run for the day was Kant in Started B, Kant had a great outrun and she was almost to the sheep when the set out dog stood up because another dog was heading for the sheep and Kant stopped and the sheep saw the dogs and headed back to the set out and Kant was not in a position to cover sheep running from her. It was a bummer but things happen! We did not have to stick around for that score so we headed home and were able to get there before dark. It was a mixed weekend where my dogs did things that I really liked and where they also gave me lots to work on. Our next herding event will probably be the Sheltie National in March 2010.

The most amazing working dogs

I was lucky enough to spend from September 22nd to September 27th in Klamath Falls Oregon at the USBCHA Sheepdog Finals! I was packed up and on the road Tuesday morning with Kant and Echo; we got there in the afternoon after stopping at Rocking Dog Ranch to do the days chores. It was an easy and uneventful drive but Kant never relaxed, she knew we were on another adventure. We set up our tent right next to Lora’s RV and then put x-pens around both so the dogs had a great place to run and explore. The Finals were great! The location was amazing, it was a HUGE green alfalfa field surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. 151 teams competed Tuesday – Friday for the top 40 spots to run on Saturday and the final goal was to be one of the top 17 to run in the Double Lift on Sunday. The Semi-Finals for the Nursery dogs (dogs under 3 years old) where Wednesday and Thursday with their final run on Friday. The Nursery field was down by the entry gate and I only made it down there a couple of times to watch the young dogs. I did not have a specific job that I was assigned so I just bounced around wherever I was needed…at the gate, eye clinic, info booth, etc… Friday evening after the Open dogs finished running I put on an agility demo. Monique was there with Zora her Papillion, Shawna was there with her Chihuahua/Corgi that was too cute and her border collie, Sandra with Lark her Border Collie, Dana and Tess a Barbie (Border) Collie, and me with Echo and Kant. I was a great group and we put on a nice little demo. Thanks to Lora for hauling down all her jumps and a couple tunnels and I brought in my car a set of six weave poles, a tunnel, a jump, and 2 hoops and Dana and Adele brought tunnels bags for all the tunnels.

I watched most of the runs on Saturday and felt that the best of the best made it in to Sunday. The double lift is my favorite to watch, the first outrun was 580 yards from the handlers post and of course the dog is running wide to not influence the sheep which means way more then 580 yards, bring that first set through the fetch panels which are 240 yards from the handlers post, stop, look back and get the second set that are 550 yards from the handlers post. Those dogs run their hearts out. After putting the two sets of 10 sheep together and bring them around the handlers post then they start the over 500 yard drive work. Bringing them in the shedding ring for an International shed and the final element is to get the 5 sheep that were shed off in the pen. Several teams ran out of time in the shed ring, they had 30 minutes to complete the course. I was completely in awe of the work I saw from both the dog and the handler! The 2011 Sheepdog Finals will be in Colorado where I expect to see Lora running a couple of dogs and where Nell’s pups could be running Nursery!! I had a great time and it was as close to a vacation as I could get; I was not competing and just got to hang out with friends and my dogs. Yes there was a little bit of dust but the weather was perfect and they did a great job of watering down the road to try and keep the dust down. A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WORKED SO HARD TO MAKE THIS EVENT THE AMAZING EVENT IT WAS – LORA, GERI, MELINDA, SHAWNA, AND AMY WORKED THE WHOLE TIME.

I was inspired to work my dogs to the best of our ability!!

The Columbia Cup Agility Weekend

This past weekend, September 12th and 13th, the shelties and I went to Ridgefield Washington to play agility with the Columbia Agility Team (CAT) at the Clack County Fairgrounds. The Columbia Cup is a special award given to the team that has the best accumulative score in the four regular classes in Novice, Open, and Elite and is divided between small and large dogs. Kant won the Novice Small Dog Columbia Cup in 2004. Kant did not want the pressure of winning the Columbia Cup again and knocked a bar in Regular Round 1 and then went on to run clean in the other three Regulars. And Echo did not want to follow in her big sisters paw prints and win this year.

Kant had an amazing weekend qualifying in 9 of the 12 classes. She ran great!! We Q’d in 3 of the 4 Regulars, Touch’N’Go, Weavers,

Tunnelers, Hoopers (our first time in Elite Hoopers),

and the greatest of all is the 2 Elite Jumpers Qs!!! It took us 3 years to finish Open Superior Jumpers which we did in May and since then we have earned 5 Elite Jumpers Qs. Only 8 more to go to get our NATCH!!

My big blue Sheltie ROCKS!!!

Echo on the other hand crashed and burned this weekend. She had 8 runs and qualified in 2 of those. But those two were absolutely amazing runs;

one was in Jumpers and the other was in Hoopers. She had pieces of greatness in a few of the other runs and moments of why are we here. I completely lost the start line stay

by the end of the weekend. I know better and will not let it happen at the next trial. Echo had a judge gasping leap off the A-Frame

and I had flash backs of Kant at Argus November 2004. I have a list of things we will be working on over the next few weeks… We will get past this phase and become a team. And there is no doubt when you are watching Echo run that she puts 200% of her heart in to each run

and tries hard but sometimes youth has to come out.

Thank you CAT for putting on a wonderful trial with wonderful judges!! It is always fun spending time with my dogs and agility friends!! Thank you Joe Camp for all the wonderful agility pictures!!

Agility in Reno Nevada Labor Day Weekend

The dogs and I had such a great time in Nevada in July that I just had to go back for 4 days of agility. So Friday morning with the car all packed we took off as the sun was rising.

We had an easy drive to Reno; I went Hwy 58 through Klamath Falls, through California, and in to Nevada. Just past Susanville before the Nevada border there is a tree right along the highway with shoes hanging in it.

I do not know when this started but it sure caught on because

there are a bunch of shoes in the tree.

Kant and Echo started out Friday night very well. Kant finished her Open Superior Hoopers title which also gave her the All Around Open Award, now on to Elite Hoopers. Echo Q’d in both the Hoopers classes earning her Outstanding Novice Hoopers title. The Women’s Sports Complex at the University has the most beautiful grass area that we were running on.

The grounds keepers were a bit worried about not being able to water for 4 days so they water heavy Friday and the grass was WET. We did not have a great day on Saturday, Kant only earned Qs in Touch’N’Go and Weavers, and Echo got a 5 point Q in Regular and a Jumpers Q. Kant had a great day on Sunday Qing in Jumpers, Chances, 1 Regular, TNG, and Tunnelers. The Jumpers run gave Kant her Elite Jumpers title and Elite Versatility Award. Echo has decided to jump when I say it not at the obstacle causing some crash and burns. And in Tunnelers I took my eyes off her for a second and she was around the second tunnel and in the third before I could call her back but she did have some great moments in that Tunnelers run. So we did not have any Qs on Sunday but we did have great start line stays, excellent weave poles, and very good contacts. Monday Echo got another Regular Q in round 1 but could not get the dog walk/tunnel discrimination in round 2; we will keep working the discriminations. I am very happy where Echo and I are and we just keep getting better. On Monday Kant got another Regular Q and had the most amazing run in Chances for a Q. The Chances course had weave poles at 35 feet followed by a jump at 45 feet and Kant did it perfectly never looking back at me. We had not had a Chances Q since July 2008 so I was thrilled to get 2 this weekend!

Over all Kant was 10 Qs out of 18 runs and Echo got 5 Qs out of 12 runs; and they both only got 1st places in their runs so we either excelled or crashed and burned! Life with a fast dog!! It was a GREAT weekend spent with GREAT people, GREAT dogs, GREAT location, a GREAT judge, GREAT courses, and GREAT weather. Lin and Greg’s hospitality was way above and beyond; Thank You!!

With only 4 classes on Monday we were packed up and out of there by 2:30. After a quick stop for gas and something to drink we were headed home. I went home through Susanville to

Mt. Shasta so I could have more hotel options on I-5. We stopped in Medford for the night and I was back home by 11:30 Tuesday. I am already planning the trials I am going to in Nevada next year!!

Oregon State Fair – Too Big to Miss

Tuesday, September 1st, I went to work for a few hours and then spent the rest of the day at the Fair with Tammy, my mom, my aunt, Jordana, and Steven. This is the first year in the past 8 years for me and way more then that for WAG that we were not invited to the fair to put on dog agility demos. The fair had a different feel this year and over all I did not like the fair but I had a great time with the group of people that I went with!
After paying way too much to get in to the fair our first stop was to see the baby pigs;

they are always a must to see. The rest of the livestock barn was mostly empty. There were a few sheep and a few horses but no cows or goats. I think we were there between stock but they could have done a better job of moving them in and out.

There were a lot of miniature horses

including a

very cute baby,

a few Gypsy horses,

this baby wanted to smile for the camera,

some draft horses, and a few carriage horses and one carriage mule but no riding horses. After visiting the horses we made our way across the fair to the building that had all the crafts and stuff. There were Lego exhibits,

lots of great quilts, local writers, county booths,

decorated cake displays, and so much more.

I always enjoy looking at all the talent people have and every year I say I should enter some of my scrapbooking, maybe next year!! You can not go to the fair without going through the building that is selling all gadgets and must haves. They want to sell you things that chop and dice and makes juice and does just about everything else for $20, they want to clean your jewelry, and put lotion on you. There are samples to try and magical fixes for your back, feet, knee, neck, wrist, shoulder, and anything else that is bothering you. I got all the way through there and only came out with a set of sheets! After figuring out that we would all enter the horse arena at one door and have lunch in there while watching the horses we all went our separate ways for lunch since fair food is the best and there is something for everyone. I ended up with a hand dipped corn dog

and a char-grilled ear of corn dipped in butter, mmmmmmmmmm! We all enjoyed our lunch while watch the Gypsy horses being introduced, the big draft horses

competing in a course being driven by kids from 15 to 18, and a couple of groups of carriage riders competing.

They were all such beautiful horses and even a pretty cute mule. The draft horses were my favorite;

they are so big and handled so nicely. On our way to look at the flower displays

and gardens we past by Brad’s World of Reptiles. I was just walking by minding my own attention and Tammy said aren’t you going in to see the snakes. I flipped a quick U-turn

and in to the tent we went. I really do not mind snakes I see first or in VERY secure cages, I don’t like them when you are working in the yard and they suddenly move. And I am a bit weary of creatures with no legs, why were they not given any legs. Almost immediately inside the tent my mom noticed a sign hanging from a limb and it said “do not touch the snake in the tree”, the problem was that there was no snake in the tree and my mom checked every inch of that tree. So she stood in the middle of a clearing where she was sure no snakes could find her while Tammy and I had our picture take with a crocodile.

Yes it is real!

To the great satisfaction of my mom and aunt we finally left the reptile tent and went to see the flowers

but not before I had a very quick

touch of a snake, still do not like them.

After one last stop for dessert we left the fair, I got my hand stamped just in case I came back to the fair that night with Jordana and Steven. Which we did, I had missed the earlier Sea Lion Encounter show and kind of wanted to see it and the kids were willing to go back with me. After they saw the picture of Tammy and I holding the crocodile they wanted to do that so we were going to go there first and have our picture taken. When we were on our way through the fair I saw that the Mutton Bustin’ had finally started, I had looked for it earlier but no one was there. Mutton Bustin’ is when kids ride sheep, they put them in a chute like the bull riders, then they open it and off they go. And when I say off I mean the kids fall off the sheep. I laughed so hard, this is the first time I had ever seen it live. The kids and sheep are safe with people in the ring helping, the kids are wearing helmets, and the ground is covered with a foot or more of wood shavings. Too cute!! We watched a couple kids have a blast and then head over for our picture. I quickly realized the crocodile had been replaced with a snake for pictures. I was done. But Jordana and Steven stepped up and had their picture taken,

Jordana was not thrilled but she did it! That was all I could handle of Brad’s World of Reptiles and we headed to the sea lion show.

The Sea Lion Encounter put on an entertaining and educational show. We paid to have our picture

take with a sea lion and a chance to pet and play, I got the kiss, Jordana got to pet it,

and Steven got to play ball with it.

We did have a good time at the fair despite the fact there was no agility!! I would not go back to the fair next year but I NEED to have my picture taken holding a snake…

Thank you Tammy for sharing the pictures you took so between the two of us the whole fair was covered!!