Border Terrier Pix

Tonight the link popped up to let me load jpeg files and it was not working when I posted my story about the Border Terrier trial.  Here is a picture of Chudleigh sporting his glorious title rosette and first place rosette for completing his open standard preferred title.

Is he looking great and feeling wonderful.  I have him on melatonin and you would be amazed to see how thick and luxuriously plush his fur is.  He even has the cutest sprinkling of fawn dapples on his coat.  He has become quite the head turner, and of course he has totally regained his svelte boyish figure, no more beached whale look for Mr Chudleigh. He has rippling muscles and not an ounce of extra fat on him anywhere.

I feel so blessed to have my beautiful dog back.

Viszla Agility 2/2/13

We entered just Saturday this time and had a really great day competing.  Both dogs entered novice FAST, both did open jumpers, and Chuds made his excellent standard debut and Rollo did open standard.

Going tall to small Chudleigh was my first dog to compete in novice preferred FAST.  He listened and worked well for me, qualifying  with a score of 62 out of the required 50 and 5 seconds under course time for a 3^rd place.  Competition was tough and I am very pleased with my boy.

Rollo tried too but was too much of a Momma’s boy to dare go into the tunnel portion of the send with me staying so far away.  I wanted him to be happy and successful so I crossed over the line and helped him be right.  He finished the rest of the course the way I planned but of course he couldn’t qualify.  He thought he did a good job and got his treats and lots of praise.

Next class was open jumpers, kind of a convoluted course with lots of potential for off courses.  Unfortunately one of those traps caused Chuds to take a sucker jump, but he aced his weaves and flew right along.  He also knocked a bar toward the end of the course.  He was happy and I was too, he was feeling good and really trying.

Then it was Rollo’s turn to run that course.  Rollo unfortunately popped out of the weaves and I had to resend him which he did successfully.  He was steaming along quite well and I thought he just might qualify until he went right past a jump that I hadn’t told him to jump as I figured it was right in front of him.  Note to self, don’t assume things with a baby dog.  Of course he did fine after I redirected him and he took the jump but that was his 2^nd whoopsie and the time penalties ate us alive.  Oh well, he had one final class in which to shine.

Chudleigh’s excellent preferred run was going great UNTIL he decided the teeter felt funny and he bailed just as it started to tip.  Aargh!!!  He did the teeter fine in his FAST class, but it was a different teeter and might have feel weird.  He aced his weaves, stuck his table landing  like he had super glue on his paws and nailed the rest of his contacts.  I screwed up as navigator and missed a jump, but that was after he had bailed on the teeter and nq’ed his run.  Oh well, he got lots of praise, hugs and treats so he was a happy boy.

After a couple hours of waiting the open standard class started.  There was a triple jump that was heading into really bright sunlight and was really close to the pipe fencing in the ring.  Easily 50% of the dogs were crashing the jump, they just did not realize how huge it was.  Not only did Rollo sail over it with room to spare, he nailed his weaves and completed the course with a perfect score and 3 seconds under course time for open standard leg #2!  What a stunning finish to a very long frustrating day.

Yup, another fun day playing with my dogs.

When am I going to see the rest of you out there competing?  I am feeling a bit lonely.

Christy

Border Terrier Trial

I can't upload pictures of the beautiful rosettes for some reason, but what a weekend we had trialing.  Yesterday Rollo Qed in T2B from  a class of 12 for a single point.  His time was 48.05 but the winner scored an astounding 24.2.  Chudleigh popped out of the weaves and restarting them took up too much time so we didn’t Q.

Chudleigh was the star the rest of the day though with a Q in both open standard preferred and open jumpers preferred.  His jumpers leg was a clean run 42.04 in  a 47 second course for a 1^st place.  The standard leg  was a 95 due to a table refusal, he mounted from the side as he was going too fast to get on from the front.  He was 10 seconds under course time with a 74.31 out of 84.  He got a 4^th place for his 2^nd leg.

Today 

Day 2 was a single Q for each dog.  Rollo got another single point from T2B.

Chudleigh had the final run of the day and he did it in grand style with a clean run and a whopping  18 seconds under course time.  It was a 74 second course and he smoked it in 56.78.  That finished his open standard preferred title.

Christy

Sunday agility fun

We picked up 2 more legs today at the trial and it wasn’t nearly as cold, so it was a very good day.

First class was T2B and darn if Chudleigh didn’t pop out of the weaves around the 9^th pole.   I was moving away from him instead of straight ahead so he needs more practice on that.  If I had put him back in the poles he would have been way over time so there was no way to save the Q.

Rollo ran the same course and had no problems in the weaves.  He actually qualified and picked up 8 points with a very nice run.

Next class was open standard.  Chudleigh incurred one refusal when I ran past him while he was in a tunnel and when he came out he was confused and ended up in the wrong position to take the next jump.  I got him heading in the right direction and we managed to complete the course with no further mishaps.  He was 5 seconds under course time and his 95 still got him a first place.

I had great hopes for Rollo in that class but the agility gods refused to smile on us.  Rollo the huge worrier about tunnel monsters actually dashed into the wrong end of a tunnel that we were just running by on the way to a jump.  Despite it being a fault I was beyond happy because that meant tunnel monsters were no longer a worry to him.  Unfortunately he incurred another refusal when he got on the  wrong side of me heading for a jump and to make things even worse he dashed right through the weaves between pole 1 &2 coming out the back side!  Talk about a Whack A Mole moment, yesterday his weaves were spot on and to die for.  He did nail them on the second try, but in of course in open you only get one screw up and weaves do count.

I had high hopes for the final class, open jumpers but alas the agility gods were giving us the Bronx cheer instead of smiles.  Chudleigh evidently left his brain back in the crate in the van, he was beyond AWFUL!  Charlie was standing ringside holding Rollo for me as Rollo was just 6 dogs after Chuds.  Unfortunately Chudleigh figured correctly that Charlie had the holy grail of super yummy treats that you only get after you come out of the agility ring.  Chuds was stopping every few jumps to gaze longingly at Charlie, then would take a long loop away from me and head for the wrong jump.  I managed to redirect him every time and all that foolishness only incurred one refusal, but the time penalties ate us alive.

Final run of the day was up to little Rollo, and his run was stupendous.  His cheering section was lavish with their praise for his wonderful run.  He tried so hard but in his enthusiasm he ended up on the wrong side of me and had to be redirected to be able to clear the jump he needed to take.  He finished the course beautifully but the 5 point refusal and the 6 seconds over course time killed us.  In open those 2 points per seconds add up really fast.  I was tired and hadn’t quite caught my breath after running Chudleigh and honestly we had just done  the 2 runs in the standard ring barely  a few minutes earlier.   I think I need to stash some oxygen for just such occurrences, dratted congestive heart failure trying to spoil a good time.  

Next weekend we will compete again both days in the same place.

I got digital copies of 2 of Rollo's runs this weekend, the T2B and the 1st open standard leg.  Here are the links

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=W3vrmqi5Y6Q&NR=1

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3zsctHxs2w&NR=1&feature=endscreen

 

Christy

Snow Girls!

The dogs adjusted to the snow with no problem - and - we have too!

Happy New Year to all of you,

Sydney

 Our first snow - week before Christmas.

 My niece's dog, Tallulah and Coffee - Sentinels!

The La Plata Mountains from the east.

Those ROSE dogs!

No pictures from today, it was pouring rain when we were done and of course my dogs had to wait until the final 2 classes of the day to qualify.   This weekend we are doing the Weim club agility competition up in Santa Rosa and about froze our patooties off.

Both dogs did novice FAST, both did open jumpers, and Rollo did open standard and Chuds did novice standard.

Going small to tall Rollo was first to do FAST.  For some reason he bailed on the teeter just at the pivot point, and refused to do the send.  He is somewhat of a Velcro dog and couldn’t POSSIBLY leave my side to do a simple jump and tunnel.  Oh well, everything else was good and we figured it was just a warmup for later.

Chudleigh did amazing in FAST and if the judge hadn’t made a colossal mistake in designing the course he would have handily qualified with a 67 AND 3 seconds under course time.  Okay, what I am railing about was the tunnel in the send portion.  The open FAST dogs went into the left side of the tunnel while the handler ran along the right side of the stuff.  The judge decided to have the novice dogs take the right side of the tunnel but there was no switching of the angle of the jump so when the speeding dog took the jump the left side of the tunnel was what they saw first.  Of course it called Chudleigh’s name despite me trying to get him to come to the correct end.    Only 5 novice dogs managed to qualify and it was totally unfair to have the open course easier than the novice, and that was the ONLY difference between open and novice, grumble, grumble!

Oh well, Chuds tried and that was all that mattered.  He is feeling and looking good, and preferred seems to agree with him.

Open jumpers was interesting, it was a good course, but a bit challenging.  I was ready, and so was Rollo.  In fact he was so ready he went rocketing along and where I had planned to execute my front crosses he had already gone right on by,  generating more refusals  than I care to remember.  BUT, and there is always a but, his weaves were to die for!  All 12 of them, perfect and FAST!  I did something different and it worked, I ran fast and told Rollo WEAVE, and by golly he stayed in the poles and raced along behind me!  That in itself made my day, Mr Pokey sniffing in the weaves is no more.

Chudleigh  did great in this class, and also raced along in the weaves when I took off.  Unfortunately about 3 jumps from the end when I kicked in the afterburners heading for the finish line he managed to drop a bar.  That is the most sickening sound to hear on a lovely run, and the whole audience let out a collective “Oh” when that happened.

Last runs of the day were pure paydirt, though.  Rollo got his first open standard leg with a 100 and 9 seconds under course time.  He flew through his weaves just like earlier, and I couldn’t be prouder of that little bulldog.

Chudleigh  was 6 seconds under course time and some of that was due to having to check UNDER the teeter to see what those yellow weight bags really were.  That gave us a 5 point refusal but hopefully that satisfied his curiosity and it won’t happen again.   His weaves were really fast, I could hear the poles rattling as he strove to keep up with me.  That was his final novice leg so tomorrow both dogs will be in open/open.  We are also doing T2B.

I was hoping to see Jennifer or Donna out there competing in this new year.  I did see Shiffra Steele out there running some Weims.  Right now Chudleigh is the only boxer competing.

Chudleigh is a GENIUS

All my dogs are smart, I have taught them many things that they have easily mastered, and sometimes they just plain surprise me with something.

Today surpasses all those surprises. 

Tuesday is garbage day for my neighborhood.  For us that means we have to have our wheeled recycle container and wheeled garbage bin out next to the curb first thing in the morning so the automated truck can empty them.

I let the dogs out for their first potty trip of the day and Chudleigh stopped at the foot of the steps and stared at the blue recycle bin.  They he looked back at me with a quizzical expression on his face, then deliberate turned his head slowly back at the recycle container and pointedly stared at it for a longer period of time before looking back at my face again.  I had to tell him that although Tuesday is our garbage day since it is Christmas tomorrow will be garbage day, and I thanked him for being such a good boy to remind me to put the trash out.

I was totally blown away.  I know my dogs can count, but I had no idea Chudleigh knew the days of the week.

Lightning Strikes Again!

Today was another super agility day, 5 entries and 3 Qs.  Rollo ran T2B first thing and although he didn’t qualify I was greatly encouraged that he was able to complete the course. The first time he did it the buzzer went off when he still had a few obstacles left to do.  The weaves slowed him down with 3 stops in the poles to hopefully check specks in case they were food.  He did complete the weaves without popping out though and everything else was spot on.

He ran open jumpers for his very first time today as I moved him up last night and darn if he didn’t qualify!  He was 5 seconds over time due to popping out of the weaves so his Q was an 85 point squeaker.  He was the only qualifier in his class and got a pretty blue rosette.

His open standard run was total chaos, he was distracted and acted like he had never even seen the contact equipment before as he wildly ran by everything.  I guess 2 long days of agility just overloaded his little doggie circuits so I carried him off the course.  He is happy enough, so it must have been sensory overload.

Chudleigh finished the day in grand style qualifying in 100% of his classes!  He finished his novice jumpers preferred title with a clean run and 14 seconds under course time.  Then he did open standard preferred and was so fast he sailed by the final jump so I had to circle it and redirect him.  Even with the side trip he was 17 seconds under course time.  I was very pleased that he stayed on the table, but I did use my big outdoor voice when I said STAY after softly commanding table. 

Chudleigh is a very VERY good boy.  As you can see by the tightly cropped picture he is rapidly graying.  He will turn 6 in May.  I am thinking I will keep him in preferred as jumping 20 makes more sense than having him do 24 with all his poor body has been though.

What a finish to the year.  Our next competition will be the Border Terrier trial the first weekend in January.

Best agility day EVER

It is a good thing I like agility because we left the house at 6:15 this morning and got home at 6:00 tonight!  We entered 6 classes and qualified in 4, and it really should have been all 6.

First class of the day starting at 8:00 was novice FAST which I entered both boys in.  They ran small to tall so Rollo was the 5th dog on the line.  He did great, nailed the send and we got a very respectable  score.  Unfortunately the timer messed up so we had to re-run for score.  The judge said not to worry about the send as he did it fine so when he backed out of the tunnel in the send I didn't re-do it and just went on.  Bad move, that was a huge misunderstanding on my part and the judge said she was sorry but couldn't qualify me for that.  I told her that since he had handily qualified the first time why couldn't I just take minimum score of 50 to keep the Q.  She said that would work so that is why his score was 50 points, which still gave him a 2nd place.

Poor Chudleigh was robbed.  The brainless steward that was the chute straightener did NOT straighten the chute and Chuds got all wadded up in it.  The poor guy was struggling to get through it and it wasn't letting him, I was amazed it didn't come off the barrel.  Anyway he had to give up and come back out the entrance.  Unfortunately that was the 2nd obstacle and was worth 9 points so there wasn't enough time to get the required 50 points and make it to the finish jump to stop the clock.  He got the send and even sailed through the weaves speedily for 10 points.  The judge at least let he put him through the chute after we were done so he wouldn't have a a problem and he went through it fine.  She was muttering that she had never seen a dog get tangled up like that in a short chute.  Well, if the stupid  chute fluffer doesn't do it correctly it will happen.  I hope her day job isn't packing parachutes.

Then we got to hang out for hours until Rollo had open standard.  He was flying along great, wonderful concentration, everything spot on UNTIL the weaves.  He got the entrance and was zipping though them when around the 7th pole he spotted a tiny brown pebble on the weave base that looked EXACTLY like a  piece of kibble!  He stopped to sniff and in his disappointment that it wasn't a yummy treat lost count and missed a pole.  Being open I redid the weaves as we are allowed one screw up and can still qualify.  He sailed thought them perfectly and finished the course, but the time killed us.  We lost 18 points in time faults plus the 5 for the table fault.

Everything else was rosy.  In novice jumpers they both qualified with perfect scores way under course time although Chuds was a 2nd place.  Rollo did a 42 second course in 33.47 to finish his novice jumpers title.  Chudleigh got his 2nd jumpers preferred leg doing a 45 second  course in 30.50 seconds.

Final class of the day was Chudleigh's novice standard.  He had one mess up.  Due to great speed he sailed off the table and had to hop back on.  Even with that he had a faster course time than the 1st place dog but 100 beats a 95.  He did a 74 second course in 53.05.  I am in awe, I have my Chudleigh back.  He feels good and looks wonderful.  Not too shabby for a dog that had a grim 30% survival chance intoned by the cancer department up at Davis.

Tomorrow we get to play again.  I hope we get home earlier.  Driving home from Santa Rosa in the darkness and rain was no fun.  Traffic was quite heavy and the oncoming headlights were brutal. Poor Charlie had white knuckles.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Moab with family.  5 adults and three collies shared a Subaru Outback. 

 Friday we drove to Dead Horse Point State Park to walk and take in the view of the Colorado River.

 Saturday we started off with a 3 mile round trip hike, to Corona Arch (behind Coffee).  

Getting to the arch itself was tricky!  There is a ravine behind Coffee so we had to climb up and around.

In the photo below you can see people that look like ants.  We had to scale UP the rocks from where they were to about the middle of the photo (see a tiny person).  First try both dogs had their nails out and got no where.  Second try we had them on a short leash on our right with our left hand on the cable to pull ourselves up.  Going down was easier for the dogs, but awkward for us.  Their rears held their weight back.

Photo on right doesn't show how steep and slick the surface was.

Sam and Echo walked along the Colorado river chatting with hikers while we did the climb.  

There they are in the road waiting for our return! 

After lunch we drove around Arches National Park.

We left just as the sun was setting.

Moab is 3 hours from us.

It was a fun weekend and the weather was gorgeous!

Hope you all had a good weekend too!  Sydney

Donna and I took the dogs out to Buchli Station for a pre Thanksgiving Run. The weather was perfect. The sky was clear and most importantly for our 3 the ground was wet and the ponds were full. They had some joyful comes through the pond amidst a lot of play. Ube and Lea began the day with a quick kiss before they went wild. Jennifer

CHUD'S CANCER RECHECK

Super news, all the testing today up at Davis showed no sign of cancer. They did bloodwork and an abdominal ultra sound. Also his weight is slowly coming down from a high of 73 to 69 1/2 today. They were thrilled as they well know how hard it is to lose this prednisone weight with his screwed up metabolism due to the chemo. Of course his normal weight is around 62 lbs so we still have a ways to go. Unless we see something alarming he goes back in 3 months for another check up. Christy

Stuff

Hi all!! Christy, great jobs with the dogs. How in the C man doing?? Be sure to sign your names when y post. I now have a new vehicle, my old one totaled in a car accident. More on that later. Donna

1st Snow

Nov 10 - that's all the snow we got - east side of house.

Nov 12 when we could see the La Plata Mountains to the west.

    Last few days it has been in the 20's at 6 a.m. but warms up with the sun - mid 40-mid 50's .   I was actually out in the yard with a sweater at 1 p.m. yesterday!  If the wind isn't blowing it is quite nice.  Sunny and dry.  But there is a thick piece of ice on the koi pond that stays all day.   

Sydney and the girls send Happy Thanksgiving wishes to everyone!

Norcal Golden Trial 11-11-12

I am bumbling my way though this, as I am a beginning blogger lol.

The past 2 days we were up in Santa Rosa competing with the boys.  I THOUGHT  I had NQ'ed in every possible way over the years but today was a new one for me.  On Chudleigh's standard run he came around the wrong side when I did a front cross and to keep from falling down when he hit me I threw my hand out to catch my balance, but I hit the wing and brought the whole jump down!  Yup, I dropped the bar instead of my dog!  Shame on me, except for that fiasco he would have q'ed.                       

With all of Chud's medical problems I bumped him down to novice preferred as he was unable to get even close to course time.  Wouldn't you know his first time in the ring doing novice jumpers he was so kerflummoxed at seeing only 6 weave poles that he popped out at the 5th pole looking for the rest, and this was just as I blinked and turned my head to see  where we were going next.  Now remember this is a dog with his AXJ so you would THINK he could handle 6 poles.  Um,  with boxers you don't think.                                                                                                                     

Yesterday in standard Chuds bailed on the teeter but did everything else fine.            

Yesterday Rollo was more confident in the ring and in both of his runs he ran over to introduce himself to the pole setter, eating up far too much precious time.  He made his open standard debut and it took him 2 tries to get the weaves so even if he hadn't gone visiting we wouldnt' have qualified.

Today I tried T2B with Rollo.  Um, in a nutshell he ran out of time due to a LONG visit with a pole setter.  He ran well though and I was pleased, the buzzer sounded when we were 3 obstacles from the finish.  

Rollo's open standard run today was better, no visiting and if it hadn't been for Trolls in the tunnels he would have qualified!  He aced the weaves, and galloped along paying great attention.  The tunnels were dark and the entry was straight on with a very sharp U in it.  Too scary, he popped out and refused to go back in.  Same thing with another tunnel.  Darn those tunnel monsters.

As I said earlier, Chudleigh's standard run would have qualified if I hadn't run into the jump.  He bravely did his teeter and I was very pleased.

Final class of the day for both of them was novice jumpers and they BOTH QUALIFIED!  Hallelujah, Charlie is always so pleased when "his" dogs qualify.  For some reason Chuds fluffed the weaves and popped out at the 5th pole but I saw it and brought him back around to redo them.  That ate up precious time so I ran as fast as I possibly could to save the run as the clock was not our friend.  I didn't collapse  and his 93 was all time faults.

Thankfully there were about 18 dogs until Rollo went in which game me time to catch my breath.  This dratted congestive heart failure is such a nuisance sometimes.  Rollo missed a jump and we had to circle  and redo it which ate up time so his score was a skin of his teeth Q with an 85. 

Chuds has really aged and I think he looks a lot like Zorro with the greying eyebrows.  He sees the oncologist next week for a recheck but so far so good.  I am still trying to get his prednisone weight off, and it is a hard battle.  The drugs really messed up his metabolism.                                                                       

                                                             

                                                              

Hi!

The girls saw snow last weekend!  Coffee for the first time.  At first she didn't want to step on it but was fine once she did.  We went to visit our nephew as the cold front arrived.  We had a beautiful  sunny/ blue sky five hour drive through the mountains until about a half about out when the snow started to blow.   David is north of us and at higher elevation.  Next afternoon the sun was out and snow started to melt.   The girls had a great time running with their dog,  Hobbs!  When we got back to Durango a few days later we were back to upper 60's and sun.  We did not have snow or rain here.   We are in a drought so either is wished for!

I've enjoyed hearing what Christy and her gang have been up too.  I hope the rest of you will keep in touch now that Donna has set this up for us. 

Healing thoughts go to Donna and Mike after their accident.  

Sydney, Echo and Coffee

Views and Wildlife

View from Rim Drive a few minutes from our house.  That's the high school, fairgrounds and Recreation Center next to the Animas River

 Below you see the bear prints I spotted on the driveway a week ago.  This morning this fellow showed up in the back at 7:50.  Earlier at 7:15, Coffee barked from the window and I saw a mother and two cubs.    I pressed a "boat horn" they had here and away they went!  The recent fires, plus the drought have the bear looking for food.  They like to eat acorns and fruit.  We have oak trees on the property!

 This buck was spotted out the front window.  There is a salt lick there and a small water "hole".

I almost forgot, I spotted a coyote this week on the driveway while walking.  It was almost the size of Coffee!  The deer and coyote are more brown in color than the ones in CA - and they are not as thin!

Hope your summer is going well.  We are still unpacking but take time to explore the area or run errands each day.  Miss you all!  Sydney

Just received an e mail from Sydney, boy is she having adventures in just getting their stuff. Here is a quote from her email- Two weeks late  and what a day that was!   Friday at 9 -  Driver calls to say he will be here at 10 a.m.  He calls back at 10 a.m. to say that his semi cannot make it through the “round abouts” in the housing development!  We meet him and drive him to a rental company to rent a small truck.  The driver and two men make multiple trips back and forth the mile to our house.  It takes 7 hours!   It was wrapped and loaded in 4 hours in Napa.  At 4:30 while unloading the last load we get one of those Colorado thundershowers.  For 15 minutes it poured like mad - the men put the beds together.   Sam and I both worked like crazy while they unloaded.  Pointing out what went downstairs etc. and Sam unloaded his books in his "Wine and Book" Room.   It was a very long day.   Just think that included clothing.

Hello from Colorado

Echo and Coffee were great travelers

 When we arrived they enjoyed looking for chipmunks and bunnies down on the patio!

We often see deer and and bunnies.  The chipmunks love siting on the patio in the morning to munch on whatever they eat.  They are SO CUTE!  Two nights ago we saw a black bear 70 ft from the front door.  I had just come back from a walk at 8:45!

Thinking about  you all.  Have a great "rest of the summer".   Sydney

Good Bye Zorro...........................

It is with much sadness that Good Bye is said to Zorro.....................

Zorro will be missed by his family Christy and Charlie along with the other dogs at home.  He will be missed by his agility friends and others who know him.  Zorro accomplished much is his short life, he and Christy earned agility titles, obedience titles, rally titles, but most of all the title of friend!!  That is a title that will be with everyone who knew him.  Zorro was treasured by Christy and for that I know Zorro is blessed.  He had an incredible life, got to do much and see much.  But again most of all and the most important was the love he shared with his family.  With heavy hearts right now over the loss, but to brighter days and the memories that you will  always have. 

Be sure to go back and review the November 8th post for a slide show of Zorro......