Hello!

We must have left the cooler weather in Washington!

We did bring some fun exercises back and plan to set them up for class on Wednesday.

See you then.

A Very Busy Day

Lots of fun handling games were introduced to the working teams today. It was a good thing we had blue skies all day since we worked outside on the grass. Some of the dogs and handlers may even find themselves in a video that is being worked on.

Tomorrow is contacts and weaves. If it's anything like today we will be busy. We head home in the evening.

Has Anyone Been Checking The Blog?

We've been busy working the dogs, writing notes and absorbing lots of good information. The dogs are having a good time too!

A Day Off

Today we had a day off to enjoy the outdoors with the dogs. It is raining on and off. This morning we took the dogs to a park where Jennifer, Kerry, Lea and sometimes Ube went swimming. Echo and Coffee played along the waters edge wading in up to their elbows retrieving cookies. ALL of us are resting this afternoon before we begin 5 days of foundation and puppy work plus weaves and contacts. Donna and I had two great days working Masters Handling exercises with Inc and Echo. Lots of fun challenging exercises to share when we get home.

Are We There Yet?

The slide show begins with photos of Ube who got to ride in the back seat. He had a "spot" on the floor but would occasionally pop up to ask "Are we there yet?" No wonder -- we left home at 9:30 and drove until 10:30 last night! That left us only 2 hours to drive today. We checked out the town and drove to see Argus Ranch. See the photo of the large covered arena where we will be working Echo and Inc tomorrow. After settling into our motel we let the dogs play and stretch their legs in the field next to the motel.

It is beautiful and green up here and warmer than expected!

How Sweet It Is!

Helen Marie and Magnum were entered in Obedience and Veteran Sweepstakes at the recent Brittany Specialty in Vallejo. Magnum who has his UDX was off to a rough start in Utility B with a non qualifying score but managed to surprise his handler in the next two events. Here is Helen Marie's brag.

I haven't seen a qualifying Open [obedience] performance from him in years, he usually blows the sit stay and IF he makes the sit stay it is only because he has blown one of the other exercises. OK, we have no chance for the Obedience award. He does a beautiful - albeit typical Magnum - job in Open with slow, moon the judge drop, sneezes and nose touches on his fronts. We go in for sits and downs and when I came back from the sit stay he was STILL SITTING!!!! Amazing!!! Coming back from the down stay he almost moved but held it and we qualified. One of five.

Well, I know my boy, one of five puts us fifth, and with the fourth place dog getting a 196 I knew we weren't getting anything higher...BUT he did score a 190 which is one of his personal bests and of course we got the High Scoring Obedience Brittany trophy!!! YES!

We went over to the conformation ring where we did our thing in Veterans, the judge was impressed by my 12 year old physical conditioning and good teeth. Magnum got lots of applause, which he loves, as he gaited around the ring. He got his ribbons and toy and I got a check! WOW! AND we were presented with the Obedience trophy while we were in the ring for Veterans.[see photo]

It was a really great day! Magnum is sound asleep under my computer desk, but he deserves to be snoozing and snoring. ;-}

Truely An Inspiration

Check out Susan Garrett's Blog
http://susangarrett.wordpress.com/
The June 7 post and the video in the comments section of the June 6 post have some truely inspirational video. You may have seen videos of Donna Rock doing obedience work. If not, you are in for a surprise.

For those who are not familiar with crate games, here is what is going on. The object is for the dog to sit when your "hand" touches the crate door. Once the dog sits, you open the door and feed the dog a cookie - high and in the back of the crate. During the teaching process you "step" on the leash when you release the dog so he cannot wander. You then wait for him to decide to go into the crate on his own. Once he does you feed and repeat the process.

The second video shows Donna's young border collie and her older Doberman doing some obedience work. To find the agility video in the comments section of the June 6 post you can quickly scroll down until you see the video picture. Here she is using a tug toy to reward the dog instead of just spitting food as she had done with her obedience training. Pay attention to the excellent timing of her front crosses. By the way the BC is only a year and a half!

Achieving Goals

Congratulations to Maggie and MACH2 Riley for reaching their second MACH. It takes a lot of dedication, practice and perseverance mixed with a big dose of love to accomplish this title. Riley needed to earn 750 points (earned by seconds under course time) and 20 double Q's (qualifying in EXB Jumpers & Standard in the same day). That was for his first MACH. They did it a second time for their second! Way to Go!

Just beginning their career in Agility, Christy and Zorro earned their Novice B Jumpers title this past weekend. We wish them many happy training days and trials as they form a team. Enjoy the Journey!

Playing Tug

I'm still working with Coffee on playing tug with me. She has a soft hold/bite and I need to be careful that I don't jerk the toy out of her mouth. Watching dogs play tug with each other, especially an older dog and puppy is helpful.

Here are two 40 sec. videos of Echo playing with Ube. Watch the interaction. How Echo re-offers the toy after pulling it out and let's Ube win quite often.

Too bad my camera has no sound. Echo "hums" the whole time!

Stay Challenge!!

If you don't know what to work on with your dog between now and the next class, here's an idea. For the next class we are going to have a challenge. Who can do the farthest lead out stay. No, your dog will not be required to do the jumps, but will be required to stay. The challenge will start at 5 feet and will continue to 25 feet. Dog moves you're out!! That means lifts rear, creeps forward, etc. If you succeed at 5 feet the next challenge will be 10 feet, then 15 feet, 20 feet and 25 feet. If there is a tie we will have a tie breaker. This will be done in each class. Good luck practice those stays in front of a jump. a tunnel, a tire, etc. The first piece of equipment you sit your dog in front of could be any piece of equipment. See you in a couple of weeks!!!

Schedule revisions

Please check the post below for revisions. Two Wednesday classes in June are canceled. The changes are in italics and in a lighter color. There will be only one Focus Class in June and topics have been added. The arena will be closed for two Thursdays.

We will be in Auburn, Washington with Susan Garrett. If you are interested check her website or contact us.

Mark Your Calendar

EVENING CLASSES
These are 6 week sessions. Dropping In is not permitted
.
Session 3
May 20, 27, June 3, 10, July 8, 15
Session 4
July 22, 29, Aug 5, 12, 26, Sept 2

Class #1 at 5:40 Be on the field ready to work at 5:40
Class #2 at 6:45

If everyone plans to arrive on the half hour, you'll all be on time!

THURSDAY OPEN ARENA
Starting in JUNE the agility arena will be available for practice during the summer from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Note: arena will be closed on June 18 and 25.

One side of the field will concentrate on jumps, tunnels and/or weaves. The other will have the contacts. We will have sequences marked with cones. If we have any handling suggestions, they will be posted by the water faucet. You should use the time to improve your skills not run long courses. If someone else has run a 10 obstacle sequence and you want to do only the A-frame, figure out the length of time or perhaps work it while they walk their course. Please DO NOT move equipment!

Cost is $5 for a dog enrolled in a 6 week session.
$13 for dogs not enrolled in a session.

FOCUS FRIDAY at 6 p.m. on select dates below
Each class will focus on one skill (i.e. weaves, 270's, rear cross)

June 5 - REAR CROSSES
tentative dates for future classes:
July 10 - WEAVE ENTRIES
July 31
Aug 21 or 28 or both

Cost per class:
$10 for a dog enrolled in a 6 week Wed. session
$18 for dogs who are not

Next Focus Class

We will not be having a Focus Class in May.

Friday, June 5 is a date we are considering. Pencil it on your calendar and let us know if you are able to come. Which of the following would you like to FOCUS on: weave entries; contacts; rear crosses; serpentines; 270's?

It's Hot!

It's hard to resist putting up puppy photos. The other day when Sam and I puppy sat, it was interesting to see how quickly Ube realized there was a big hole with water in it! I missed the first shot in which he didn't get this close but immediately turned away and knew it was there after that.

Looks like we're in for some hot weather the next few days!

Ube Being Funny

Sam and I puppy sat today. We had a lot of fun with the busy boy!

Changing Faces

If you scroll down to the bottom of all the posts you'll find a slideshow of the Tandem Dogs. The oldest photo was taken in 1996. Donna had the Belgian and Aussie and I had the two Shar-Pei. Somewhere about that time an obedience judge at a seminar dinner asked me if I'd ever thought of having another breed. I very honestly said no I loved the breed and was/had been doing tracking, obedience, conformation and agility with them. I eventually had 5.

It matters not what breed we have or what we do with them, because they all become special. Susan Garrett believes that a dog comes into her life for a reason. Mine certainly have and I could tell you a life's lesson or two I learned from each of them. Mine have also come into my life at very important times. The Shar-Pei had various health problems and Pei, my Aussie, came at one of those times as did Echo, my Collie. Coffee Bean came before I knew I would loose Pei.

As Donna starts down a new road with Ube, I wish her lots of joy, love and fun. If in the process they gather a bucket load of ribbons and titles it will be frosting on the cake, because Ube was meant for Donna and Mike!

They Grow Up So Fast!

Friday is Coffee Bean's 2nd Birthday.

It is also the day that Donna and Mike pick up their new puppy Ube.

Happy Birthday Coffee!

Congratulations Donna and Mike!

Welcome Ube to a whole lot of fun and endless possibilities!

Happy Easter to everyone! Enjoy the weekend with your dogs and family.

Sue and Indy - Beautiful Contacts!!

Video of Sue and Indy - Good job, watch and pay attention to the contacts, they are GREAT!!!