Anniversary

On a personal note, Denny and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary tonight with going out to dinner with Katie.

Wooo Hooo! Another Q

We only entered Starters Jumpers today and Cash again Q'd and won the class. Pretty easy when you are the only 12" dog. SCT was 43 seconds, his time was 26.39, due to a "visit" to the ring crew over by the tunnel at #6..... :-(

His YPS were still 4.66. I felt really good after the run when all 3 of my instructors who were there complimented me on my handling. Normally my plan flies out of my head when I step to the line, but this time I felt like I had an angel on my shoulder telling me, "Don't take your eye off of him. Support that jump. Call his name when he's in the tunnel." I actually feel like it's coming together. What fun!

Video and course below:

USDAA trial today

I entered Cash in Starters Jumpers and Pairs (with my friend Darla, and her Pom, Nina) at our GoDogs trial. In his Jumpers class he Q'd with a time of 26.53 on a course with a SCT of 46 seconds. Here's the course:















In Pairs, Cash ran the first half of the course
cleanly in 14.23 seconds. Both dogs Q'd and our combined time was 12 seconds under time.


















Here are a couple of pictures from an AKC trial a couple of weeks ago:

NQ - Novice JWW - Greater Lincoln Obedience Club

And today we went down in FLAMES!!! It seems like Cash either wins the class or we totally bomb. But when we bomb we do it in spectacular style, going MACH III with our hair on fire!

I like it better when classes run tall to small, so I have more time after the walking the course and the judge's briefing to ratchet Cash down just a notch before ring time. Today was small to tall and after walking and the briefing, I got him from his crate and had just a couple of minutes before we were due at the start line.

He did hold his SLS, but I could tell by about the 5th obstacle, he was way too cranked to be in control. My fault as I should have trained better. He has never left the ring before, but he blew 30 ft. out and came right back when called, but then took the wrong end of the tunnel. Once I got him turned around, he was fine, although he missed his weave entry but got it on the second try and didn't back weave. Even with the zipping around he was 15 seconds under course time. I'll still take a dog that is balls to the walls. I can learn to handle him rather than have to cheerlead around a course. My cyberfriends on one of my agility lists have recommended I get him really cranked in class and have him practice focus and self control so when he gets to a trial it's nothing out of the ordinary. Good advice I plan to heed.

Anyway, I'm still thrilled with yesterday's Q!

First Novice JWW Q!!!!!

After an all day wait, Cash Q'd (and won the class) in Novice JWW at the Greater Lincoln Obedience Club trial today in Lincoln, NE. SCT was 41 seconds and he ran it in 25.03. His YPS were 4.07. Video below.... (I know I need to be a better handler!)

AKC trial this weekend - Novice JWW

Saturday:
No Q due to an off course tunnel and an idiot handler who COULD NOT get a front cross in where it NEEDED to be. On the up side, his start line stay was rock solid, his attention on me was good and we were able to complete the course after restarting the weaves once. It's just information at this stage of the game and more of a learning curve for me than for him. AND tomorrow is another day and another opportunity. Wow, I love this game!

Sunday:
We didn't Q again today, due to an off course tunnel suck. HOWEVER, I was able to bring him back to the correct jump AND I got THREE front crosses in (something I've never been able to do with his speed)!!!!!!!

His weaves were a sight to behold; fast, solid and single tracked.

He was 17 seconds UNDER course time including the off course. Imagine what could have been without the off course!

OT: Another handler and I were talking about the aches and pains of agility in our mid-50's. She said she uses Tiger Balm on aching joints after a trial. Never heard of the stuff but decided to give it a whirl. I picked some up on my way home and applied it to very sore knees from being the chute tender for the Open class today. Wow! Incredible stuff! Within a minute the ache was gone. (And my sinuses were opened.) The aroma fades fairly quickly but it's still working and keeping me pain free four hours after application.

Nebraska Humane Society NADAC trial

Director Judy Varner and the entire crew of volunteers put on a great trial this past weekend. Skies were overcast (with a few sprinkles) and the temperature was in the mid 60's. The dogs were loving it! Our judge Don Cuda had courses that challenged the handlers to think and he was his usual delightful self.

I totally took leave of my senses and entered all 12 classes over the two day trial. It proved to be a good choice as Cash won 6 of his classes and completed his Novice Jumpers and Touch N Go titles. His start line stays and contacts were rock solid. We do have some work to do on "Out!" and his tunnel sucking reared its ugly head when asked to discriminate between the dog walk and that enticing tunnel. Oh well, it's just information. He had never seen a hoop before but there was one in the practice area we tried a couple of times before ring time. No problem at all for him, although he probably wants a better handler as I got lost on course in two classes and he saved my butt both times. I wonder when he learned to read numbers?

Tunnelers was the last class on Sunday and those fast BC's kept dropping the time for the round with each run. A fellow GoDogs member, Mike Battaglia's Jo was last to run and smoked the course with a 16.44. She was flying! All in all a great weekend with fun competitors.

I'm looking forward to next weekend when Cash and I will compete in the Jumpers with Weaves (JWW) class at the AKC trial put on by the Bellevue Dog Obedience Club at the same location. It will be Cash's first AKC trial and first step into the "big time."

This n That

Where was I?

Oh yeah, we cleaned up after the June 27 "gustado", but the area still looks like a bomb went off. As a result of the non-tornado with winds in excess of a 100 mph we get new siding on two sides of the house and a new roof. Whoopeee! Now to come up with the deductible.





Katie healed up but didn't even receive a Thank You card from Steve after hauling his sorry ass off the golf course and likely saving his life from being squashed by a tree. Not that she expected anything, but I felt it would have been the very least he could have done. She did, however, receive a gift certificate for an hour long massage from a friend. Brenton told Denny that he had never known a hero before and wanted to do something nice for her. What a guy!





Since I can't show Betty again until the AKC gets off their collective butts and processes the DNA Belinda and I sent in to get Betty's individual registration, I decided to take a week off and head to my brother, Bill and sister in law, Sue's place at Leech Lake, Minnesota. I invited my friend and neighbor, Gin, to join me as she had last year. We left on July 19th and returned yesterday evening. Of course Betty and Cash went with us. Keegan, the crybaby, stayed home with Denny and Katie so I didn't get annoyed with his whining and leave him on the side of the road in his crate. Just kidding. Sort of. I had to drug Betty with Alprazolam (Xanax) as she gets motion sickness and there was no way I wanted to be stopping to clean her up and have her miserable on that long of a trip. She crashed in her crate and only woke up for potty breaks. What a good girl!





We traveled nine hours up I-29 from Omaha to Wahpeton, ND and
cut cross country on two lane highways from there to the lake. I think it is Park Rapids, MN that has this lovely funeral home. Call it my demented sense of humor but I think the name is hysterical. Get it? CEASE?

Ahem...

Apparently it is a family name and there is a chain of these in northern Minnesota.



Anyway, we got in to Bill & Sue's in the late afternoon on Saturday and spent Sunday and Monday walleye fishing on the lake. Gin doesn't fish but enjoys riding in the boat. Sue asked her if she wanted a refresher course in boat driving and soon she was at the helm. Sue loved it as she is always multi-tasking with boat driving, fishing, watching the fish finder, etc. It was a nice break for her. Here's Gin at the wheel.

Apparently she was very good luck as Sue hooked into this monster. Unfortunately Leech Lake has a slot limit meaning no fish between 18" and 26" can be taken. That size is breeding size and they are needed to repopulate the walleye. This sucker was 24" and weighed a little over 5 pounds. I couldn't have made him 26" if I used a rolling pin, so back he went.



We did bring home our limits so a walleye dinner will be coming up soon.

Tuesday and Wednesday were too rough on the lake to fish so we played golf, cut grass, had lunch in town, shopped and met Gin's former boss and his wife, who have a beautiful log home a few miles from Bill and Sue, for dinner in Walker on Wednesday night.

Thursday my brother welded me a set of three 2x2 weave poles bases to bring home. He even painted them for me. (Those who train in agility will understand what weave pole bases are.) While Bill was busy welding, Sue and I bathed and trimmed their 13 year old Shih Tzu, Dolly. Thursday night is game night on the peninsula so we headed to the township hall for a couple of rounds of dominos separated by potluck desserts.

Friday was another day of fishing. Denny had Katie send me a text message. "How ya doing on the CPF?" It puzzled me for a second. Certified Public Something???? Then I got it and called her. "I know that message may have come from your phone, but I know who REALLY sent it." She asked if I knew what it meant. "Of course, Cost Per Fish." They both cracked up laughing. Sue and I decided if we had kept all the perch, huge Northern Pikes and slot limit walleye we caught, we could have had the CPF down to about 50 cents. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near that. Suffice it to say you can't put a price on fun.

Saturday we all drove about 45 miles away to Blackduck, Minnesota, home of the Woodcarver's Festival. Gin had never seen it and that kind of artistry is hard to imagine. These folks carve some of the most intricate items with everything from a chainsaw to a scalpel. It's fascinating.

When we returned to the lake I had Betty and Cash out off leash. Cash has a decent recall and responds well from a distance when I direct him away from something. Betty, not so much, but she was trying hard. Unfortunately some asshat from down the lake had arrived at his campsite and turned his two large Brittany Spaniels loose. The male came charging into the yard and Betty immediately took offense with snapping and snarling in his face. When she turned to me as I called her he tried a sneak attack and got nailed on the nose for his trouble. The last we saw he was heading back to his campsite with his tail between his legs. Dolly has always protected her turf and it was as if she was telepathically telling Betty to do the same. Betty may be a full-coated show girl, but she's got some brass ones. She never even wrinkled her coat in the short-lived fracas. She has always gotten along with other dogs but something about the way he charged into the yard got her dander up. Although the encounter surprised me, I was glad to see she has some moxie.

After the long return trip, it's good to be home.

The Music of Chainsaws

Yesterday was quite the eventful day. Around 4:30 p.m. we had a hellacious thunderstorm blow in with accompanying straight line winds of between 110 to 115 mph. The news stations reported it was consistent with an EF-2 tornado. There were 126,000 households without power in the Omaha area. It literally came out of nowhere, with no warning. When the wind started to pick up I crated the dogs in the basement because we have had some nasty weather lately.

One minute I was looking out our sliding glass door toward the golf course behind us and the next minute I was screaming for Denny to help me hold the door in its frame as the wind and hail were pounding to get in. He looked out and said, "Oh my God, there's a golfer out there." I looked out and saw a figure flat on the ground next to a stocky pine tree attempting to shield himself from the nickel-size hail and pummeling winds. I said I was going to go get him and as I took off my glasses and set my cell phone on the counter, Katie pushed by me and said, "No, you're not. Grab me that blanket off the couch" and out the door she went. Denny and I spend several worrisome minutes because we could see NOTHING more than five feet across the deck, when Katie and the golfer, Steve, came up on the deck and through the slider. Both were sopping wet and dripping blood from small cuts made by the hail. Nothing life threatening but minutes later as the storm lost some of its fury we could see that it could have been.

Katie has reddened hail welts in several places

on her face, all over her back and the back of both arms look like she's been beat with a baseball bat. (The scar on her left cheek was from a dog bite when she was 7. Amazingly she never lost her love of dogs.)

Here's the tree Steve had been huddled under.

He was on the ground on the right side curled up to the trunk and would have been crushed as it was uprooted and toppled over in the wind if Kate hadn't gotten him out of there.

Apparently The Man Upstairs must have been pleased with Katie's heroics because when we looked out the front door, there was her car in the driveway with a tree limb about 14" in diameter across the roof of her car.

Amazingly, there are only a few dents in the roof, but the glass in the sunroof was undamaged. We think the limb kind of sagged onto her car instead of literally dropping on it and really causing a mess.

The little town of Valley had some hard hit areas too. Mostly big old trees that couldn't stand up to the force of the wind coupled with the rain-softened soil that caused them to uproot. A grain silo in town must have taken a direct hit, crushing the silo and knocking the boom into the power lines.

Anyway, we finally got power back at 2:04 this afternoon after spending most of the day listening to the music of chainsaws.

I am SOOOO sick of this weather

I know. What good does it do bitching about the weather. Can't change it, so why bother?

For the fourth night in the last five, the Omaha, Nebraska area has been hit with high winds and pounding rain and hail. I looked out across our deck last night and saw a whiteout swirling not 100 feet off the deck. At that point the tornado sirens went off and I'm sure Katie's cat did not enjoy being chased down the basement stairs with three poodles behind her. We had nickel size hail but no tornado.

However, two tornadoes wreaked havoc in the Millard area of Omaha at 2:30 a.m. Saturday night. Fortunately there were no fatalities.

Not so last night when four Boy Scouts, ages 13 and 14, three of them from Omaha, lost their lives when a tornado came over a hill at Little Sioux Scout Ranch about 50 miles north of us. My husband is an Eagle scout. It's kind of like the Marines. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. Denny spent years at Little Sioux as a scout, an Eagle and later in his early to mid 20's as a quarter master. I found out this morning when I got to work that my court reporter's oldest son is in the same troop with one of the boys who died and she is friends with his mom.

Like a friend of mine said this morning, "Why couldn't we hear on the news that a crack house got blown to bits? Why do we always seem to lose our best and brightest?"

Life just sucks sometimes.

Another good day

Cash won the 12" Novice Jumpers class again today and only needs one more Jumpers Q to have his Novice title in NADAC. I didn't have the course yardage from yesterday and today until toward the end of the trial. I was pleased to calculate his YPS from yesterday at 3.82 and today he was smoking with a 4.79 YPS. We had a minor bobble that cost us some time. When his handler gets her poop in a group, he'll do better.

Touch N Go and Tunnelers was a totally different story. As hot as it was today I presumed he would be somewhat tuckered for these two classes that ran this afternoon in the heat of the day with high humidity. Not a chance, he was attacked by a case of the poodle zoomies in TnG and that was that.

Tunnelers again bit us in the collective butt with an off course. However, his start lines stays all day were excellent. Since we struggled with those early on I was pleased.

Woo Hoo! Two more Q's!

Friday night I took Cash to the Fun Run practice session for this weekend's NADAC agility trial. Thank goodness I did because he was a total wild man! I was not anticipating a good day today based on the insanity I saw from him last night.

I am happy to say, Cash was an awesome boy today! He won the 12" classes in Jumpers and in Touch N Go. He now needs one more Q for his Novice Touch N Go title. He NQ'd in Tunnelers due to bad information from his handler.

We are entered again tomorrow in Jumpers, Tunnelers and Touch N Go. He is absolutely loving agility and am I glad I taught him Right and Left. He is sooo fast and I am sooo slow, with those commands I'm able to steer from behind. If I could just teach him to read numbers I could sit on the sidelines and let him run the course by himself.

Not bad for a little guy who won't turn 3 until June 18th.

Fun weekend

Cash and I were joined by my friend, Darla, and her Pom, Nina last weekend to drive to the U2KanDu NADAC agility trial in Lawrence, KS. It was our first trial (well, their first trial and our second if you count the Wahoo trial in January of 2007 where Cash broke his start line stay, took 4 jumps and lapsed into poodle zoomies).

We both entered Novice Skilled Weavers 1 & 2 and Touch N Go 1 & 2 for both Saturday and Sunday.

Touch N Go 1 was the first class and Cash had an awesome start line stay and solid contacts. Touch N Go consisted of tunnels, an A frame and a dogwalk. He had not been on either the A frame or dogwalk in quite some time at class but did okay on the Friday night practice run throughs.

On Saturday he won the 12" TnG class with 3.78 YPS and no faults for a Q and a blue ribbon, and followed that with a 3rd place finish and Q in the Weavers 2 class.

Unfortunately, due totally to handler error, we failed to Q in the other two Saturday classes or any of our Sunday classes. (All the while Darla and Nina are racking up Qs and titles in Weavers and Touch N Go!)

We decided to be gluttons for punishment and entered Tunnelers before we headed back home. I didn't realize the SCT (standard course time) for Tunnelers is significantly less than the other classes. Suffice it to say Cash and I missed a Q by 1.97 seconds due to a very slight veer toward an off course tunnel that I was able to call him off of.

We had such a good time I am contemplating entering some local NADAC trials.

It's Mine! No, it's MINE!

And today was pretty much like yesterday....

I am choosing to look at the results (or lack thereof in Cash's case) as information. Nothing more.

Cash gave me GREAT attention outside the ring. Isn't that how it always is? But from the start sign, just lost it. Only through do-overs was I able to get him halfway through the course before he left the ring. He did come back, but by that time the judge excused us. I wonder WHAT is going on in that head of his when he gets into a ring and the leash is removed.

I'm thinking about registering him with APDT (another rally venue) where we can start in Novice again and all exercises are on leash. Hmmm, have to mull that one over.

In other news, Betty got Reserve again today, but showed happily and looked fabulous (if I do say so myself). Another poodle person helped me with her topknot yesterday, but today, I did it all by my lonesome. For the first time in 30 years! She is such a happy girl.

Here's some video taken by Julia, the 12 year old granddaughter of my friend, Loretta. You can hear Loretta in the background talking and hooting for Betty.

My bad that I forgot to tell Julia not to zoom in as the quality gets fuzzy. The first dog seen is the light platinum bitch who won. Betty is the gunmetal grey with the big mouth. Hopefully the sound comes through.....

Oh, well tomorrow is another day

I took Cash and Betty to the Seward County Kennel Club show today with high hopes of Cash finishing his RA and Betty getting her first points. As the title says, oh well, tomorrow is another day (and another show).

Cash had to either be scratched or shown by a friend because their ring times were 10 minutes and 150 yards apart in separate buildings.

Kris did the very best she could with Cash. Nice attention outside the ring. Once the leash came off, it was another story. The judge asked, "Are you ready?" Kris looked down at Cash to make eye contact and get his attention, and he took one look around and left the ring. He is my velcro dog and even at that, there are times his nose overrules his adoration of mom. Timing is better tomorrow and I'll be handling him, so wish me luck that we get that final leg for his RA.

Betty was one of only two miniatures bitches entered today. No dogs and no specials were entered so we had a shot at Best of Variety. Alas, it was not to be. Although she showed beautifully with her tail up and very happy, the other girl, a very light platinum silver, took the point and the Variety. I was very pleased that Betty was not at all nervous or shaky and for her very first show, that is huge. She was enjoying herself so much in the ring that when some terriers in another ring were sparring noisily, Betty let out the Whoop! she is famous for. It sounds something like the scream at the start of CSI: Miami.

I was so pleased she had a good time, especially since she is not the best car traveler and tends to upchuck. She rode to Seward with a towel pinned around her throat and front of her jacket as a bib, just in case. She was fine on the hour and a half ride out. I pulled up outside the obedience/rally building and Kris took Cash and I drove to the conformation building. The minute I turned around to leave Kris, Betty started hurling. Good girl that she is she managed to barf in the trashcan in the van. Considering that kind of a start to her day, I was especially happy she showed so well. What a trooper!

The cat must be pumping iron...

I've talked before about Katie's cat, Isis, and her disdain for the poodles. She generally has nothing to do with them other than occasionally joining in for a portion of the eternal poodle zoomies that take place in our house.

This morning apparently having a bee in her bonnet due to roughhousing with Katie, Isis was nose to nose with Cash when she grabbed him by the neck with her front paws. (don't worry, she's declawed in front). She was play biting him on the head when she just FLIPPED him off the bed. She then peeked over the edge of the bed as if to say, "Oops."

Cash got back up on the bed and laid down eyeing Isis warily when she LEAPED on top of him and used him as a springboard off the bed.

On another note, Betty went to her first conformation class last night and was a very good girl. No screaming to play at the other dogs and even gave me pretty good attention. She was a little spooked on the table the first time, but did much better the second. We left shortly after that having spent about an hour there as I didn't want to stress her out. It was good experience as the class was crowded. She was between a Bulldog and a Bull Mastiff. The mastiff weighed 182 lbs. and was a total wuss. She did think about joining in with the barking of a Newfoundland puppy but decided not to. Good girl!

She's a TREE climber, I tell ya!

Betty has found a new *ahem* skill. She has decided she is either a cat or a squirrel and should be able to climb trees.



OK, not TREES, but a fairly tall and sturdy yew bush next to our garage. I suppose it's about ten feet tall judging by the picture and where the top of the garage door meets the siding.


It all started about 30 days ago. Apparently she heard the birds that sometimes rest in the yew and decided to investigate by standing on her hind feet and searching the yew. She went so far as to stand on her hind legs and pogo straight up to try to see into the bush. She was fixated on the birds and was very reluctant to come back inside.




It's Nebraska. It's COLD... I shaved her butt into a Continental. You would think the girl would figure it out. Anyway for the last 30 days or so we really haven't ventured far from the front door when the dogs need to go out, and I thought the birds in the yew were forgotten.



WRONG!



Yesterday the temperature soared into the 30's, the driveway was dry and the three of them needed a walk. Off we go and as we rounded the corner to go down the driveway Betty bolted for the yew. Bouncing around on her hind legs to see if there were birds in there.




This activity wasn't getting her where the action was, which was about 3/4 of the way up the yew.




I could actually see the cogs turning in her brain as she thought this through. She dropped to the ground and backed up a few feet, glanced at me, back at the yew and did the algebra in her head.




"So, if I go X fast and launch Y high, I should land where the birds are."




"Okay, I need to back up more and go REALLY fast!!!"




And Annie Clark said poodles would just be a fourth at bridge and tell naughty stories!




When she was about 20 feet down the driveway Betty slammed it into fourth gear and hit the afterburners. She literally vaulted into the yew about five feet up. To say the least, I was shocked and laughing hysterically. I watched as she poked her head in here and then there to find the birds. Suffice it to say they all flew out the other side when she sprang into the bush. She was clinging to the outside of the yew with her hind feet braced on a couple of those sturdy branches while grasping the upper branches with her front feet. After a few minutes of her looking and not finding any birds, I figured I had better help her out of the bush before I had to explain to Belinda how Betty broke her leg.




Life with Betty is never dull.....