Ruby Roo & River

River and Ruby in Urbana, IL April 30, 2011

2011-05-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday was perhaps the windiest day I've experienced thus far. Before the wind picked up however, I got to run my dogs on a very fun Jumpers course at an AKC agility trial down in Urbana, IL

Since it was such a small trial I had to walk the course for both dogs at the same time. Here is the course designed by Judge Kay Vonnahme:

Ruby and River both won their classes (24" and 16" respectively) I did all rear crosses with River actually starting with him on my right side. I'm very proud to say that he ran it only .79 seconds slower than Ruby but at 5.38 yps giving him his first World Team Qualifying time. What a good boy! With Ruby I did all front crosses with the exception of a rear over jump #12 and she gave me a nice tight turn there. Such a fun course to run and it was great getting to run River again if only for one day. :)

As an update to my previous post, I have decided on a breeder with the help of my instructor Sherry that is to soon to have a wonderful litter on the ground. I mailed my contract and deposit to her on Monday. As they say, things happen for a reason. Updates will be posted as news comes in! Very excited about this litter! :)

A New Addition

2011-05-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

As some of you may or may not know, we have been looking at adding a new pup to our small pack. I've looked at a couple of Border Collie breeders and after seeing quite a few run in the past several years and spending time with a lot of them (not too mention running and training my ex boyfriend's dog) I knew exactly what type of dog I was looking for. Structure, health and temperament are priorities as is an "off-switch."

I've contacted a couple of different breeders and tried to do my due diligence on them and the dogs that have come from their kennels as well. Currently I have it narrowed down to two kennels, oddly enough on polar opposite sides of the U.S. One in New York, the other in Oregon.

Lake St. Louis, MO February 19 & 20, 2011

2011-02-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of fun runs with my favorite red-head! ;)

Kim and I entered the girls in the Time 2 Beat demo; proceeds went to Keeshond Rescue. It's interesting to see how similarly the girls run (except Jersey's stride is about a foot longer than Ruby's) and how differently Kim and I handle our dogs. It was a lot of fun! =)

Ruby - ALAC Trial - Feb 12 & 13, 2011

2011-02-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

Ruby and I had some time off and were a little out of sync for this trial. We went 3 for 6, 2nd half of the trial were the good runs. 1st place in STD on Saturday and a QQ on Sunday with a 3rd place STD run. She's such a good dog! Love her to pieces! =)

River USDAA January 2011

2011-02-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

1st Place Starters STD, 1st Place Starters Jumpers, 2nd Place Starters STD and a Grand Prix Q!

Some Awards the Dogs Received in 2010

2011-02-04T06:16:00.000-08:00

Agility with River Puppy

2011-01-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

River - The Red-Headed Stepchild

2010-02-24T08:55:00.001-08:00

The poor kid has been neglected with all that's going on with Ruby. We have some updates to share though.

On December 5th at the Hounds for the Holidays trial in Milwaukee, WI River achieved his Novice Agility Jumpers (NAJ) title. He also earned his first Novice Agility leg that day. He placed 2nd in both runs.

Over the New Year's weekend we attended an agility trial in Columbus, OH. River made his Open Jumpers debut but was very distracted, as were quite a few other dogs, by the basketball players in the courts next to our rings. So our first run of the weekend was an NQ and totally understandable. He earned two more legs in Novice Agility and achieved his NA title on January 3, 2010. He also earned his first leg toward his Open Jumpers title that day with a 1st place run. Things are starting to come together for the little dude. =)

Since that trial we've been sticking close to home and River was entered for one day at the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever trial in Manhattan held out at Jimmy and Annette's place. Our friend Anne Riba was the judge and she had some very nice courses for the baby dogs. River had a qualifying run in Novice FAST, kept popping his weaves in Open STD so we NQ'd but he had a very nice run in Open Jumpers. I've noticed that his times have been getting faster as he trials more. This Open JWW run was almost 5 YPS! Yay for the baby dog!

Our last trial Feb 13 & 14 was also out at Jimmy & Annette's. On Saturday River QQ'd in Open - 1st place runs in both JWW & STD - finishing his Open Jumpers title and earning his first leg toward his Open STD title. He was a very good boy. We NQ'd in FAST though; the send was an almost straight tunnel out to a jump and he's just way too fast, I couldn't get there to tell him where to go next. He did end up with a lot of points though.

On Sunday the little man made his debut in EXC JWW with only one refusal. Our Open STD run didn't go very well but it was all my fault. I told him "good boy" while he was weaving causing him to pop at the tenth pole and he took the aframe getting a wrong course call on the way back to the beginning of the weaves. We had another wrong course later during the run because I didn't turn my shoulders enough to indicate a turn. I don't have video yet for these runs but I will post them when as I get them.

I'm VERY happy with how River is doing in agility. He's a very sweet boy and has loved joining Ruby on her long rehab walks. We have a three day trial next weekend and I hope we finish that Open STD title. =)

Good News...

2010-02-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

Ruby had her first UWT (underwater treadmill) session last Wednesday, Feb. 17th and Teri saw her for the first time as well. Ruby only did 10 minutes, you could tell it just exhausted her but she did great & Kris and Teri could see how she was compensating for her front right limb. She was also flipping her left wrist slightly. Kris showed me some isometric exercises to do with her as well, some stretching and told me how to better incorporate the hill work we'd been doing.

Over the weekend, I upped Ruby's walks on the flat to 15 minutes and kept the hill work to 10 minutes. She's allowed to do some supervised off-leash running but I have to stop it as soon as it gets too wild. She definitely has more energy and really enjoys her walks. She's back to trying to pull me along and striding out very nicely. Also no limping...very happy with her progress. =)

We went back to Kris' for another UWT session on Monday, Feb. 22nd. She was very excited to be there, barking at us to tell us "Let's get this party started!" Kris increased her time to 15 minutes and upped the speed a bit. Ruby did great again. This time not "cheating" and really using all her limbs evenly. Kris showed me some more exercises to do with her and said that she's really pleased with her progress. Her elbow didn't swing out after her UWT workout and her wrist isn't flipping anymore. She thinks Ruby may still be able to run at the Loves Park trial coming up in three weeks and she'll definitely be ready for Nationals.

We head down to Kris' again tonight for another UWT workout and she's going to put her at a slight incline this time. It will work her hind end more but will also make her reach forward with her front legs and really use them correctly. We'll also decide tonight about Loves Park & see what Dr. Herlihy thinks as well.

Update on Ruby and River & Ruby's Scary Incident

2010-02-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Jan 30th: To make a long story short we spent 3.5 hours at the St. Charles ER Vet after she got hit by a car near the house. It's a 30 mph zone but people speed all the time. This is my typical luck though, wrong place, wrong time. We weren’t supposed to be home this weekend; I pulled from a trial in Lewisburg, OH

Most of her wounds were superficial. She may have a hairline fracture in her jaw, right side - her mouth is really swollen but xrays didn't show anything. She'll be eating ground food for a while. She wouldn't put weight on her right fore but again xrays showed nothing (they sent them to an orthopedic surgeon/consult, Dr. Robbins in Buffalo Grove ), her elbow joint is very clean and pretty. She is still limping on her right foreleg though - kinda curling her wrist under and bringing her limb around like a person swims, know what I mean? After seeing Dr. Herlihy for a laser treatment Sunday she thinks there may be some nerve damage. She's still too swollen to tell exactly where it could be located and there is a chance that once the swelling goes down it will disappear. Of course there is a chance that it could be permanent too. We’d def know more on Tuesday after chiro and another laser treatment. This is caused by either a nerve being pinched, due to the swelling or something being knocked out of whack or a nerve may have been torn or severed (worse case scenario).

She's on crate rest, Metacam and Clavamox. Her appetite is completely normal. We're going to start her on UW tread as soon as her sutures come out - she had a really deep laceration to her left wrist (it scraped bone but that won't cause arthritis or anything) and a smaller cut at the bend of her right elbow - and massage.

Tuesday, Feb 2nd: I think she adjusted every vertebra in her back and pelvis area (whiplash). Dr. Herlihy did some research on the type of injury Ruby has. http://www.petplace.com/dogs/brachial-plexus-avulsion-in-dogs/page1.aspx This is the nerve being affected with some info. She definitely saw some progress in Ruby’s gait and the swelling has gone down considerably. She tested her reaction to pain and that was great as well. There’s still swelling over the shoulder area where this nerve attaches to the spine and that’s where she still needs to be adjusted. Hopefully when the swelling goes down she can adjust there and we’ll see even more improvement. I’m hopeful.

Her sutures WERE looking great; she decided she was bored/pissed/a brat/whatever and removed the ones in her wrist while I was running River in class (she was in the car in her crate with her cone on). So after Dr. Herlihy’s treatment (chiro and another laser) we went back to the St Charles ER. Oddly enough the sutures in her elbow were coming undone as well so the vet redid those too. Turns out they weren’t done very well and I’m sure just a couple of tongue swipes from her undid them. I talked with Kris on the way there and she said to have them stitch it back up for sure (we were maybe thinking second intention healing) and wrap it as well since it’s her wrist joint. They put in sutures made of a stretchy material too JIC. She needs to get these out in 10 – 14 days and then UW tread to get her using that leg correctly. She’ll be getting massage from Teri when we go down to Kris’ too. So now Miss Ruby is in her xpen with the cone of shame and the Bite-not collar behind it AND her leg is wrapped. If this doesn’t work she’s going in a straight jacket and I’m getting a ‘script for Valium.

Wednesday, Feb 3rd: I got some news from Dr Herlihy. She finally had time to look at Ruby's xrays. Her elbow is out, the radius to be more exact and she thinks she will be able to adjust it. The problem is that the area she has to apply pressure to is where she has stitches right now. The impact from the car must have hit that and caused some wackiness with her nerves there too but she still thinks it's the Brachial Plexus causing most of the palsy/lameness.

More good news is that she didn't see any tear in her elbow ligaments; they may have just stretched a bit. She really wants me to get her on the UW Tread ASAP so we can get that strong again. Her gait already looks better to me. She's trying to use that limb more correctly and not bringing it out to the side. The elbow still sticks out a bit, like when she's sitting and there is still limping and weakness but when everything gets back into the correct spots I'm sure things will look entirely different. She just looks crooked to me. We go back to Dr. Herlihy tomorrow or Sunday for more laser and if she can some small adjustments.

Saturday, Feb 6th: Her movement has improved a lot. Dr. Herlihy is very impressed and encouraged by her progress. Only laser treatments today as she was still too swollen for any adjustments. She's allowed to go on short leash walks (5 - 10 minutes) a couple times a day. We have to start getting that muscle tone back.

Wednesday, Feb 10th: Ruby had a full adjustment, some pretty major stuff in her upper shoulder/neck area. The sutures in her elbow came out on Tuesday night so Dr. Herlihy was able to adjust a couple of spots in her elbow but not the radius that is out; she wants to wait on that a bit, give it a little more time. Some more laser therapy on her elbow/shoulder area and where she has sutures. I have to keep an eye on her to make sure her gait doesn't get worse instead of better, she did say there was a chance that could happen since the impact can really have an effect on those nerves. She didn't rule out Ruby's return to agility in March but I'm getting ready to pull from those trials if need be.

Thursday, Feb 11th: She was limping a bit in the morning but I wanted to wait and see how she was in the evening - the chiro seemed to have really tired her out and she didn't move a muscle all night. Also trying to keep her to just a walk is difficult, she's feeling better and she was a little excited at the new snow we got last night, she may have overdone it a just a bit.

Now: Thursday evening she seemed much better. Her gait is back to where it was prior to the adjustment but again a little limping this a.m. I've left a message with Dr. Herlihy regarding this but haven't heard back yet. Ruby is scheduled to have an evaluation with Teri next Wednesday (Feb. 17th), a session on underwater treadmill and we'll go over some exercises to do with her. Ruby's sutures in her wrist should come out tomorrow; we have an appointment at 10:30 with the vet in St. Charles.

Last Couple of Weeks...

2009-10-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while...its been just a tiny bit crazy around here... ;) Driving to Ohio one weekend and my boyfriend in town the next. Phew! I need a vacation.

The very last weekend of September we had a three day trial in Columbus. Everyone in Ohio just raves about this place but I was not impressed with the surface at all. It was AstroTurf and slick as far as I was concerned. We ran FAST first and she didn't slip so I figured she was okay. She got the send bonus and we got every obstacle out there except for a single bar jump. She placed 1st with 79 points and finished her XF (Excellent FAST) title. Standard was up next and she ran great but slipped a bit in the weaves and then right before a jump, taking a bar. JWW she Q'd but slipped in the weaves in that ring as well.

Saturday went a little better we ran clean in Standard with one little slip on the surface. In JWW with a double Q on the line I called her as she was over a jump and she turned in air, dropped her hind feet and took the bar. UGH! Other than that her run was beautiful and I could just kick myself! Sunday Ruby was nuts in Standard. The course started tunnel to Dog Walk to the chute, she was over the DW and into the chute a lot faster than I thought and I ended up having to layer the table. Me layer?!?!?! I never layer. Then jump, teeter, I front crossed and she took off missing the tire and taking the next obstacle (tunnel). I was floored! Did she think we were doing FAST again? Then she takes three jumps to get back to me and I try to get her back on course. I was so flustered (and she was still being a brat) that I ended up not turning my shoulders enough and she took the off-course chute instead of the table. I almost walked her off then but decided I could finish the run with her. Of course she was perfect! Grrrr!

Later in JWW she was perfect again. And I'm really glad she ran it so well. As we were on the line to run, a dog crated near the ring started screaming. Apparently he got his toe stuck underneath the plastic tray pan and the wire crate as they were taking him out. The poor dog yelped and screamed for 2 minutes straight while they tried to help him. It affected a lot of dogs before they ran and the judge came up to me and told me to take my time getting ready to run. I thought that was very nice of him. I immediately got Ruby to tug with her leash and made sure she was happy and ready to play. I gave the judge the thumbs up and off we went; she was moving really nicely on this run and read my deceleration for a tight turn (most dogs headed to the off-course weaves).

This past weekend we did a trial in Manhattan with the Golden Retriever Club of Illinois. We only did Saturday and Sunday as I need to save as many vacation days as I can. =) Saturday went great: Ruby ran for 2nd place in Standard and placed 4th in JWW for QQ #6 toward MACH2. We've already got the points so we just really need the QQ's.

On Sunday we were having a great run in Standard but Ruby decided that she was done after the DW and headed toward the finish jump. I have no idea why she's been doing this lately; the only thing I can think is that she gets pattern trained very easily and at the last trial the Standard course ended DW to finish jump two days in a row. She's probably also rushing to get to the end because she wants her treat...maybe no more bonus for her??? And I will have to really look at the courses from now on and see where we may pass the finish jump so I can make sure I get a head check from her. Brat! The jumpers course I got lost. I really wasn't paying attention to how quickly the trial was moving. I walked the course twice with the general walk-thru and went over to talk to Tammy because I saw she had just run FAST with Lexi. Then I had River out and saw that Susan was doing the briefing. I put him away and went to walk the course a couple more times. I only got half-way thru it when she blew the whistle. I thought I had the course down but I didn't and turned too soon after the weaves pulling Ruby off a jump (funny how she turned tightly there, eh? damn dog). Oh well, no QQ on the line and she finished very nicely.

We have a private lesson with Dana tomorrow so I can address some issues I'm having with both dogs - mostly River's avoidance of certain obstacles (chute, broad jump & panel jump) & handling for Ruby. Only one day of trialing this coming weekend and it's the Novice Only trial for River Puppy on Sunday. Should be fun! =)

September 19 - WAG - Crystal Lake, IL

2009-09-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

I just decided to do one day of the trial to keep my boyfriend company. ;) LOL! The JWW course was pretty tough, a lot of off-courses and handlers got lost. I even saw quite a few dogs cut behind their handlers, very strange. I had no expectations from Ruby since our luck in jumpers lately has been oddly absent. We handled the course great though and she placed 4th behind two Border Collies (one being my boyfriend's dog, Viper, who took first) and my girlfriend's really fast Golden, Rookie, placed third. I was very proud of Ruby. =)

Ruby was smoking the STD course but popped her tenth weave pole - the third obstacle from the end - she hasn't done that in a LONG time; the only thing I can think of is there was a tunnel right in her face after the poles or maybe it was because she was in 20" weave poles all last weekend. These were 24" and it adds 44" to the length of the weaves so maybe she thought she was done. Really sucks because she was 22 seconds under SCT. We really could have used the QQ and the points for ranking. Oh well...Viper placed third (Ruby was only 2 seconds slower than him and faster than the other Vizslas at the trial) and earned QQ #17 for his MACH and QQ #4 to qualify for Nationals.

No video this weekend as the batteries for my camera were both dead. Maybe I'll get some tape next weekend in Ohio. I'm hoping we have a great weekend down there and I'm hoping we finish our XF title too. It'll be nice to trial away from this area as things have felt strange lately.

Jari and Frodo - Winners of the European Open - Midi Dogs

2009-09-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

Clearly, I need to run...

Fox Valley DTC - September 12 & 13, 2009

2009-09-15T09:41:00.001-07:00

I was very excited to trial again and to make it even more fun...River Puppy made his debut on Saturday. So I'll start with him:

First we had Jumpers with Weaves, Novice B Class. He was awesome! He got his weaves on the very first try and finished them. =) Only a quick visit to one of the ring crew then right back to me and we finished the course. He was great and very happy! I did one FC with him that was pretty late; I think I was surprised that he'd be moving that fast. So next time I will be running and trust him to do what he was trained to do. :) He had a perfect score and won the class!

Then Standard Agility, Novice B Class. He was a very good boy letting me take a two jump lead out & reading that very well. :) He has just never been on rubberized contacts and slowed to smell the top of the DW. I did a quick release with him into the tunnel, a-frame, chute...Oops! He's never been in a 12 foot closed chute before so he came right out & we moved on to the table. Perfect! To the weaves...slight detour to say "hi" to the judge, perfect weaves, skipped the broad jump, jump to teeter, perfect 2o/2o to tire, skipped the panel jump and a big finish at the double! Yay River! Quick note: River's only seen the panel jump, broad jump and chute one or two times so I didn't expect him to do them anyway.

Ruby...a completely different story. First off, the courses were kinda weird. Both of the judges were "new" judges and need some lessons in course design. She was the pinwheel queen (though she had a higher Q rate) and he put two jumps very close together right before the finish jump in both of his courses as one of many challenges. Not very many Q's this weekend in the Excellent classes, at least for the big dogs, except for Sunday's JWW course. It was tricky but doable. Now I'm not saying that everyone should qualify & the courses should be easy, but when only 4 out of almost 50 dogs qualify and it's an exceptional running surface there's a problem.

I screwed up both days in JWW & my handling was off, though on Saturday I think Ruby was a little full of herself & took the off-course backwards triple just because she didn't feel like listening to me; I DID call her, maybe just not soon enough or loud enough & when we got to the end I really didn't give a crap because the course sucked. Like I said only four dogs Q'd in my class. Sunday's JWW run was going nicely but as I sent her out & over a jump to get into position for a FC, I checked back a second time with her because didn't trust her. That made me late getting where I needed to be for the FC to be smooth so it wasn't in the right spot, it wasn't deep enough and I ended up sending her off-course. She did have a nice ending on that course; where most of the other dogs NQ'd, she read it beautifully & made it look easy.

The Standard courses we handled great & I'd say that she rocked them! She did miss her A-frame contact on Saturday but we got a "gift" that we were "owed" as the judge didn't see it. Too bad it really didn't matter as there wasn't a QQ on the line. Unfortunately she missed her DW contact on Sunday & this time the judge didn't miss it. That really sucked because the rest of the course she ran awesomely. She didn't take the wrong side of the tunnel, she got her weave entrance & read the rear cross at the end really well not taking the wrong jump before the finish. That really bummed me out because she would have been 3rd on a course where only 6 dogs Q'd. =(

Notice the song choice for Ruby's video. Yes, it's Britney's 'If You Seek Amy' that allegedly has a double entendre but no it's not about sex at all if you listen to the words. It's about the people that watch her every move & everything she does & Brit-brit is pretty much giving them the finger! I know the feeling girlfriend! ;^) Which is why I can't wait to trial in Ohio at the end of the month. LOL!

ICF at McCook - August 29 & 30, 2009

2009-08-31T08:18:00.000-07:00

I really don't like this facility and have no idea why I keep going back. Granted it's a nice facility but when you get there early enough to get crating space down in the rings and it's already gone because people have "saved" spots for all their friends...let's just say I don't like crating upstairs. The floor is slick and dangerous and some dogs don't like the heights as they can see over the balcony. River totally freaked out when I brought him in, poor kid, and planted himself on his belly, not wanting to move forward. I ended up having to carry him to his crate.

Not a good way to start the weekend off and to add to that I got a migraine Saturday morning and could barely see straight, I haven't had a hot shower since Wednesday morning and my boyfriend is in town trying to get QQ's to qualify for Nationals. We had equipment to deliver and put together so I was a little stressed out and edgy. Ruby had a gorgeous run in Standard and placed 3rd. So a Double Q on the line and we blew it in Jumpers. It was my fault, the course was tight and she took an off-course because I didn't stop & make sure that I got her head; I kept moving forward. After that run someone that I JUST met that day (a couple from Ohio that know my boyfriend) came up and told me what I did wrong...did I ask for their opinion??? Do I pay them for lessons and/or train with them??? NO!

Sunday we had another nice run in Standard and she placed 4th. Tee up for Jumpers...very near the end of the run, and of course after all the hard parts, she came flying out of the tunnel and over a jump and kept going...partly due to her big stride. I had turned and called her and was almost two jumps away heading toward the finish, she just didn't read it or read it late and missed the jump completely. I was really annoyed with her and as I went to get her leash on said, "Ruby, you're a real jerk!" Apparently that makes me a bad sport and "someone needs to talk to me about the way I treat my dog..." Whatever. She still got her treats and her GoDog! she just didn't get her special Q treat. She didn't get punished, hit, kicked or anything else. We went home later and she & I snuggled up for a nap like always after a trial.

I always cheer everyone on and I worked my ass off on Saturday. I chute straightened for the 8" & 12" class and scribed for the 20" STD class. Made sure that the club knew that a friend was running for her MACH; they didn't have anything ready. And not to mention that I cheer everyone on no matter how bad their runs are. Sometimes people need to take a good hard look at themselves before they pass judgement. Honestly, if I was really mean to my dog, a soft vizsla, she would never run for me nor would she be as fast as she is or the top agility dog. Every once in a while people just have bad days.

The End of Wild Weavers???...and the Judge that Made My List

2009-08-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

First I do want to start by saying that when the Wild Weavers equipment trailer was stolen Friday before the trial, I felt bad for them. I also felt bad for them that the Buckeye Equestrian Center changed the surface at this trial location and it wasn't up to par (3 to 4 inches of very loose sand/dirt mix). The incidents that happened at the trial were very bad judgement calls made by an AKC judge in regards to equipment safety and not taking the surface into consideration. To add salt to the wound she made a very inappropriate comment to all of us at the briefing for the RAD demo. She's made my list as a judge I will never trial under again. It would have been a better decision to cancel the trial altogether as they thought they'd originally have to do.

Even with all the problems Ruby ran her heart out, qualifying 3 out of 4 times. The problem with the equipment was what caused her to NQ on our very first run. Someone had the brilliant idea to put tape on the teeter (it was a USDAA teeter and has shorter contact zones) after the 16" class ran. I didn't watch many of the 20" dogs but right before we were to walk I noticed some odd obstacle performance on the teeter; the dogs looked like they were very surprised when the teeter fell out underneath them and the judge called them for fly-offs.

After the walk-thru our class started and dog after dog flew off (fell off) the teeter and I remember telling a friend that I didn't feel comfortable with it. We ran the course cleanly until the teeter, I told Ruby "easy" but she still took the teeter full speed, not slowing at all for the drop. Later Susan Crank said that she thought that the tape made the teeter look like the DW to a lot of dogs, the tape resembling the slats. Really uncool of the club to allow this and after the Excellent class finished they took the teeter off the course to paint new contact zones on it. I hardly think that was fair to the 20" and 24" Excellent dogs. Only four dogs in our class ended up qualifying and two just made time.

My issue was the judge did nothing about the obvious problem with the teeter. 9 out of 10 dogs got called for teeter fly-offs & she does NOTHING. Then in the RAD briefing she's telling us there's no 4 paw safety rule. If your dog jumps off before the teeter tips past horizontal you can re-attempt it. She then says it's a good thing 'cuz some of you need to work on that. WHAT!?!?! @#$%^&*! A LONG, hot day and I should've scratched her but we ran it anyway and she took an obvious off-course. No big deal as it didn't count for anything. Then we debated about coming back and running on Sunday as the club promised to roll and wet the surface down. Ruby placed 2nd in JWW; a nice course which would have been a lot more fun to run on a different surface.

Sunday: Ruby ran as best she could on the surface which was only marginally better but it was wet and heavy instead of just loose. She placed 1st in STD and 3rd in JWW. Here's the kicker: We got 1 - ONE - MACH point in JWW and the surface in that ring was worse. The other judge (not the one on my sh*t list) said that he had trouble wheeling the course, that the wheel wouldn't turn in the sand. I'll bet that's what happened to the stupid woman judge but she either didn't notice or didn't care to do anything about it. There is NO WAY that course was 139 yards (which made SCT 37 seconds). Too bad I didn't have my pedometer with me...

I had made an appointment for Ruby to get adjusted on Tuesday after the trial. I don't know why but I had this feeling that the surface would be horrible and I was right. I just remember the 2008 Kewanee trial and how it took two adjustments to get her right.

Update: Dr. Herlihy said most of her adjustments were routine maintenance. The ones that puzzled her were a very tender and tight shoulder muscle strain that made it hard to adjust her right shoulder, which was out. Her elbow was also out and that’s never been an issue. She thought that the pulled shoulder muscle was due to pulling her front legs up out of heavy sand to lift for jumping. Since the elbow was a new thing she said she would blame that on the sand as well though I'd have to say she probably jammed it when she flew/fell off the teeter. Poor Ruby. =(

New AKC Agility Class - Run and Done (RAD)

2009-08-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

Run and Done

RAD

The goal of this class is to present a fun and flowing run. It is a single course open to all dogs. This is a hybrid class; a combination of the Standard and JWW classes.

Seventeen to nineteen obstacles will be used on the course. A combination of contacts (excluding the dog-walk) and weave poles equaling three will be required. At least one contact and one set of 12 weave poles will make up this combination. One set of 12 weave poles or one contact may be taken twice to meet this requirement. Only one spread jump can be used, but it may be used twice to encourage flow in the course design. One to two open tunnels can be used on course but may only be taken a maximum of two times. Tunnels are optional. The rest of the obstacles are bar jumps, single bar jumps and the tire. Jumps need to be at least 50% winged. No dog-walk, table, chute, panel jumps or dummy tunnels will be allowed. The minimum useable course area must be at least 7,000 square feet.

Scoring: The course must be completed within 55 seconds for the 20, 24 & 26 inch heights, 60 seconds for 16 inch height and 65 seconds for 8 & 12 inch dogs (might be too much time for some heights, but testing will help verify). Add 3 seconds for each height in the Preferred class. No wrong course faults will be allowed. A wrong course will result in an NQ. No refusals/run-outs will be called. Dogs will have three (3) chances to complete the weave poles, after that the dog must go onto the next obstacle and will receive an NQ for the run. If the weave pole sequence is broken before the weaves are completed, the weaves will need to be restarted at the first weave pole. Mandatory Eliminations (Failures) and Excusals will apply. Recording time: Round down if it is .499 of a second and if it is.500 of a second round up. Example: a time 33.499 seconds will be recorded as 33.00 seconds, and a time of 33.500 seconds will be recorded as 34.00 seconds.

Course design should encourage a smooth flow. Only three turns of 180 degrees on a course will allowed. All spacing of obstacles must meet the requirements of a Standard AKC course.

Overall challenge level will be a minimum of 5 challenges and minimum 3 side switches.

To earn a RAD title a dog will need 15 Qs and one hundred points (Points and Qs may change after data has been reviewed). Points are awarded as follows: First place dog will earn 10 points, all dogs under SCT* and within 10% of the time of the first place dog will get 9 points, 20% will earn 8 points and so on all the way down to 10% and less will earn 1 point. Points and Qs start over after each title is earned with multiplier titles indicated by number following RAD, i.e. RAD2, RAD3 etc. The following chart is an example that illustrates the points that would be earned for the 16 inch jump height with first place dog having a time of 30 seconds.

Example:

*Note: Points are only available for dogs that run at or under SCT. It may be that lower points are not available with mathematical increments of 10% over time until SCT is reached. If in the 16″ example above, the winning time was 40 seconds, then 5 points would be lowest point total available (from 56-60 seconds).

Since spacing of obstacles must meet the requirements of a Standard AKC course the course will not have to be measured by the judge.

RAD

Run and Done

Judges briefing:

RAD is a hybrid course, a combination of Standard and JWW’s classes. One course will be open to all levels in AKC agility. Fast, fun and flowing courses are key elements in this class.

Judging; Dogs will be judged by jump height not by class.

Refusals, There will be no refusals or run-outs (R) in RAD.

Wrong courses will be called and will result in a non-qualifying score (NQ). The hand signal for the wrong course will be an open hand as it is in the Standard and JWW’s classes.

Weave poles need to be completed in three (3) attempts or less, or a failure to perform fault (F) will be called. An attempt is when all four of the dog’s paws cross between the first and second weave pole. If the weave pole sequence is broken (skipping a pole) before the dog completes the weave poles the dog must start the weave poles over at the first pole.

Mandatory Eliminations and Excusals will apply In RAD as they do in the Standard and JWW’s classes.

Time: The course must be completed within 55 seconds for the 20, 24 & 26 inch heights, 60 seconds for 16 inch height and 65 seconds for 8 & 12 inch. These times are both the standard course times and the maximum course times for RAD. These times may change as the data is collected and analyzed.

*Note: during the first stage of RAD both the 12 inch and the 20 inch dog’s path needs to be wheeled and recorded on the spread sheet provided.

This new AKC Agility Class focuses on speed and trial runs are being held across the country. Ruby and I may give it a try this weekend. :D

AKC Agility Invitational 2009

2009-08-07T08:50:00.001-07:00

Validation for all of our hard work and that my dog is amazing ~ though I already knew that. I love you Ruby! =)

July 24 - 26, 2009 ~ GLBTC/GRCI Agility Trial

2009-08-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

A big three day trial at a really nice facility ~ woo-hoo! The pups and I spent Thursday night at Kris' house 'cuz she is really mean and made me get up early on Friday to help unload equipment. ;^) LOL!

Friday didn't start off too well. We got called on the Aframe in Standard. I thought she got a foot in but I can't even tell for sure on the video. A Q in JWW and a Q & 3rd place in EXC A FAST. One more leg for her XF title! =)

Saturday we had a repeat in STD; this time I know she missed her Aframe contact; she didn't clear the apex right as she was moving way too slowly on the approach. I've been working more rear crosses into my handling as I need to work on the timing and placement of them (I think River will need me to use rear crosses with him a lot more than front crosses). Ruby's used to me front crossing 95% of the time so she was a little on the slow side in JWW this weekend as well. Poor Ruby, the first dog has to deal with my screw ups and experiments! =( Anyway that NQ in STD really sucked because it was such a tough course that only 4 slow dogs qualified in my height class. Ggrrrrr!!! Another nice run in JWW and she placed 3rd.

Sunday - we had a perfect Aframe!!! And she Q'd!!! And it was a really hard course so she placed 2nd!!! Yea, Ruby!!! Another Q in JWW brings us to QQ #4 for MACH2. She really was a very good girl all weekend, missed Aframe and all. Somehow I don't think that was her fault and may have been the rubberized contacts combined with the artificial turf and me making her slow with the rear crosses. =)

WAG & River's First Fun Match

2009-07-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

Not much to say about WAG except that Ruby was her usual amazing self and we QQ'd. Unfortunately we only got in the one day, oh well. She won her JWW class and placed 2nd in Standard. Here's the video:

The following weekend we headed out to scenic Wadsworth for an Agility Fun Match to benefit Illinois Doberman Rescue. It was held at Tracy's Farm. She has horses & cows and does boarding and grooming there. It's a gorgeous piece of property. I entered both River and Ruby for two runs each. I ran Ruby first and of course, she did very well but she's a pro. Just to show you how challenging Tracy's Farm is though, Ruby got a little distracted by the horses right next to the fence while she was on the DW & popped her weaves when she heard another dog bark. That's not like her.

River was up next, his first run he did fairly well, all things considered: Jump to DW and run over and bark at the horses for 5 seconds. Run back to mom do the tunnel, NAIL his weave entry and complete all twelve, to the tunnel and run past a jump to pee on the fence in the corner...oh my...baby dogs...sigh...get him back, two jumps, go bark at the horses again because they had the nerve to move to the other side of the ring. Get him back, jump, a-frame, jump, teeter, tire jump...must sniff ground in front of tire...do tire, do tunnel, run around a jump and do the last jump! Yea River! Then he pooped right after we left the ring...if he had done that BEFORE we ran maybe jumping would have been easier. Ugh!

Ruby's second run was perfect. She nailed the teeter and DW with a FAST 2o/2o. We had two very cute little girls about eight years old scoring all the dogs. They loved Ruby and said she was the most awesome dog and gave her a score of 5000. Adorable! =) Wish they were always our judges! LOL!

River was up next for his 2nd try. A little better, very nice jump to DW, only a short detour to bark at horses and right back to me when I called him. Into the tunnel and weaves, got the entry but kept popping at 4. The weaves were pretty light weight and not nailed down so they had moved a bit. I let him try twice and we moved on. Tunnel, three jumps to the Aframe and he was great! On to the jump, teeter, tire sequence and again some sniffing in front of the tire. Don't know if there was something there that was really interesting or if he was stressing over the tire itself. Finally got him to take it, tunnel, two jumps out and he was perfect. The girls gave him a score of 50. Not bad, eh? LOL!

So LOTS of positive things and some little things to work on. I do think that there was a lot of dog pee in the agility ring and for him to work for me in such a distracting environment is phenomenal for a thirteen month old puppy. We need a lot more work on his teeter and I'll add a stop to his DW but overall I think he's putting things together very nicely.

Forest City DTC - June 26 - 28, 2009

2009-07-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile...still feeling the afterglow of our perfect weekend...Ruby finished her MACH on Friday with two first place runs for Double Q #20!!!!

Then we went four for four on Saturday and Sunday...2 down...18 to go for MACH2!!!!

I'm so very proud of my special, red-headed girl!!!! =)

Belvidere, IL and Grove City, OH

2009-06-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

I went to the Belvidere trial on Saturday not planning on running her; I thought I'd check out the JWW course and if it had too many tight turns I would just pull her from both runs. It turned out to be a GREAT idea as it rained continuously and after 100 people walked the course, it became utter slop. Good thing my plan was to scratch her on Saturday.

For Sunday they moved the rings...thank God! I was watching her closely during her JWW run so I ended up running her slowly and carefully. I'm sure it's hard for a non-agility person to imagine running a dog around a bunch of equipment and be able to "watch" how your dog lifts over jumps, etc., not run into anything and still qualify. LOL! It got warm before our STD run and she did great, only missing her aframe contact, which was weird as she hasn't done that since November when I was twenty feet away from her doing a send in FAST class. Here are her runs:

She was definitely feeling good though and we headed out to Ohio the following Thursday for a three-day trial inside on dirt. Yea! =)

Ruby LOVES this trial facility; its held at the Buckeye Equestrian Ranch in Grove City, OH. Great judges and great courses ~ lots of fun!!! Ruby went 5 for 6 ~ the only thing that kept us from that last QQ and her MACH was a hop off the table...I could have killed her...but I think she was feeling good and was just really fired up. Here's the video:

We all had a lot of fun that weekend and the weather was great. River decided that playing in the baby pool and killing chipmunks is the most fun ever! =)

German Shepherd DTC - June 6 & 7, 2009

2009-06-12T12:19:00.001-07:00

It's taken me some time to feel like writing and updating the blog. Things have been a little messy the last two trials and they're getting me down. We've been missing QQ's by one mistake, usually mine, and she's not been as fast as she has been in the past.

Saturday started out nicely, she had a great run in JWW; not the fastest but she was at least working well for me. We picked up 26 speed points and were set up to run and Q in STD. Or as my friend Ashlee says, "We've teed up for the QQ." Not to happen though. Our judge miscalculated the ring dimensions and they had to squish the course together. So normal in some spots and VERY tight in others. Unfortunately Ruby took an off-course tunnel under the a-frame that I didn't anticipate. After my later findings last weekend it may not even have been my failing to cue her to take the frame that caused the off-course - more on that to follow. She handled all the tough spots and I was fairly happy with how we handled the course. The triple at the end...oh my...she took it, cleared it and I held up right as she landed so as not to run out of the ring - remember the course was squished. Well she tried way too hard to turn back to me and slid on her shoulder. It's kinda hard to see in the video but the damage was done.

Later that day she went out in the yard to run around with River. When they run, the run like the devil is chasing them. Ruby flattens out and sometimes she'll turn way too quickly to try to catch River and he's really fast. They came in, took naps and when Ruby got up she was limping, favoring her right shoulder. I gave her a massage, also working on the tight spots in her neck and it seemed to help. Sunday morning she was moving around just fine.

JWW run on Sunday: Tough course with two loops, passing by a tunnel opening twice. Wow! She read everything great except a tough weave entry. I just didn't give her enough room but considering that at that point I knew she was sore, I'm almost positive that if she wasn't, she would've have gotten the entrance and saved my butt as usual. During STD it started raining so I was just careful on the contacts. One VERY hard call off a jump and she nailed the rest of the course. We picked up another 28 speed points.

Sunday night - again the pups out in the yard running, Ruby suddenly stopped and jogged back up to the house. She took a short nap and got up stiff/limping again on that right shoulder. I'm really freaking out at this point but rubbed her down again and iced her shoulder. I also gave her a couple Traumeel to help with any swelling and pain. I'm thanking myself for making that appointment at Integrative for her on Thursday...I'm also thinking that off-course tunnel on Saturday my have been a choice due to pain. The tunnel is WAY easier than the a-frame.

Thursday - Ruby gets to hang out at work with me. She really loves coming to work with me and seeing everyone. On to our chiro appointment. We saw Dr. Collins this time instead of Dr. Mayer. The last time Ruby was in for an adjustment was right before Nationals so around the end of March. Dr. Mayer didn't have much to do; just a couple spots in her neck and she was good. This time however...right side of her pelvis out, three spots in her neck, a couple spots in her back and...BOTH of her shoulders. Yikes! She really didn't want Dr. Collins to touch them and do the adjustment either so I had to distract her with food, which is not normal for Ruby.

She's all back together again but this weekend's trial is up in the air which sucks because we have awesome judges. Dr. Collins wants me to wait until Sunday before Ruby returns to any activity. Most of the time she's gotten adjusted and is able to compete a day or two later. Ruby definitely feels good now, wanting to play and acting silly. The problem is trying to keep her quiet until I feel she's ready to go. She is NOT happy. So I figured I'd see how she is on Saturday and also see how the JWW course is and decide that morning at the trial. If the course isn't too twisty I may end up running her and then I'll see how she is before I decide if I run her in STD or not.

Glenbard All Breed Obedience Club - May 30 & 31, 2009

2009-06-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

After taking a long weekend off, relaxing with my boyfriend and his dogs down in Ohio over Memorial Day I was ready to trial again feeling a bit rejuvenated. Unfortunately it didn't carry over into the trial. The soccer facility in Naperville is still only a year old and the fumes in there from the rubber gave me a migraine that lasted all weekend. Ruby was also very slow. Her YPS times were way off of her usual speedy self. Here are the runs from the weekend:

I didn't know if the extremely loud whistle during our first run of the weekend had anything to do with her speed, if the fumes were effecting her as well or if she was not getting the usual energy from me due to my head hurting but we were not connected as a team. You can see in her STD run on Saturday that she broke our connection briefly when something near the score table caught her attention. Just a strange weekend overall.

After class on Tuesday, in which she was her usual fast, sassy self, I had Ron give her a massage. He found some tight areas in her neck and middle back so he concentrated on stretching them and massaging her knots. I just wonder that if she's feeling a bit of pain and stiffness during a trial that it makes her slow down and concentrate more instead of having fun like she does in class due to the stressful environment of a trial. I've noticed that she's been a little off lately and I definitely think she needs an adjustment. I really think she may have hurt herself in her excitement at the Berwyn Dock Diving event a couple of weeks ago.

That observation made, I watched our DVD from Nationals back in March last night. We were so connected during our runs and had so much fun there. I need to get that back and I know we'd be back to having as much fun as before as well as getting her feeling better and fast again. I'm going to have Kris keep an eye on her this weekend at the Hanover Park trial, see if she notices anything. If she is really off because of Dock Diving we may stop doing that for good which is a shame because she really loves it.

Chicagoland Dockdogs & Agility Ability - May 16 - 17, 2009

2009-05-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Whew! What a cold windy day it was on Saturday. The sun tried to come through and help us out a bit but the wind kept up all day. The water was freezing and I can't believe Ruby jumped in at all. She was pretty fired up to play the game though. Her first jump of the day ended up being her furthest - 10' 7" and she placed 5th in the Junior level in Wave 1. From there her jumps decreased to 10' 4" in the 2nd Wave and 8' something for a 3rd place Novice level jump in the 3rd and final Wave of the day.

Between Waves 2 and 3, I did try Speed Retrieve practice with Ruby. She seemed to get it but that was also when she decided that it was too cold to jump. I'll wait until Fourth of July weekend at the Summer Splash Event in Rockford/Loves Park before we do any dock diving again this year. She did make it to the finals on Sunday as an alternate for the Junior division but since we were doing agility all the way out in Plano, I figured we'd take a pass.

Sunday started out a lot better and was only chilly early in the morning. It had started to warm up by our first run in Jumpers at 8:30. We were the first dog on the line and she ran great, not even looking at the off-course tunnel trap that got a lot of dogs. She dropped a bar however as the Jumpers ring in Plano is on a slight slope. The timer malfunctioned so I have no idea how fast she ran the course but I bet it was pretty slow since her legs were pretty cashed from swimming all day on Saturday.

About an hour and a half later we ran the Standard course. She did very well again and placed 2nd picking up 25 MACh points. Seems like we are staying just slightly ahead of our competition but since we are taking Memorial Day weekend off for some much needed R & R, I'm sure we'll lose our tiny lead since everyone else will be trialing for sure. Oh well, I guess I should really stop caring about what other people are doing because as far as I'm concerned, Ruby's my best girl and will always be the #1 Vizsla in my book! =)

Quick Post - Training Day!

2009-05-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

We had class with Kurt last night. It was our first time training outside this year and with the exception of the water filled tunnel {I think it was rabbit pee ;-)}, Ruby did great. Kurt had set-up one of the courses from World Team Tryouts from a couple of weeks ago. We did Course Eight, Large Agility by Diane Craig with a long tunnel in place of obstacle #14, the chute.

You can check out all of the courses here:

https://www.akc.org/pdfs/events/agility/world_team/2009/tryouts_coverage/courses_all.pdf
Ruby ran it well the first time except she was slow coming out of tunnel #3 {with the rabbit pee}, went wide from #4 to the dogwalk #5 as she was doing her typical "I know I'm training, I need to take a gallop past the crowd and bark at them so I can embarrass my mom" thing that she does in class and I just needed to tighten her up from #9 to #10 in the sepentine.

Another spot that we made an adjustment on was the ending serpentine line. The first time I ran it with a front-cross after the A-frame staying to the left side of the line of jumps and a rear-cross from #19 to #20. She was a bit wide there as well and Kurt had me change it so I came in between #18 and #19 and rear-crossed on the take-off side of #19 for a nice tight turn to jump #20. She's reading the rear-crosses really well now - look out! :)

Then Kurt re-numbered the course and we worked on some new things - remember, the chute is a long tunnel and we enter the opposite side on this course; I chose to do a push off the A-frame. Again Ruby did really well, but I sucked. I was having a really hard time remembering what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be going. Maybe it was because it was late and I was tired. Maybe it was because Marietta is in our class and she's very distracting; I have no idea. I finally got my crap together and worked on MORE rear-crosses: One between 15 & 16, the other between 17 & 18. It worked very well and felt nice and smooth. Cool!

New Pictures of River

2009-05-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

I think he's ready for his casting call... =)

Lyons Township DTC - May 9 & 10, 2009

2009-05-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

Such a strange weekend and kind of a weird place to trial. I had to ask a friend where the Jumpers ring was since we got there a little later than I had planned. That's when I found out I was the second dog in for Jumpers and the JWW ring looked a little like the set of the Ed Sullivan Show! I was a little surprised that I was in so soon as I thought they were running 26" dogs first and then 24" but Beth had moved me up to the 26" class for this trial. Hmmm...anyway being caffeine deprived and sick didn't help and our first run didn't go as planned. I got a little dizzy as I forced a front cross in after the tunnel & couldn't get where I needed to be to support a jump. Oh well...

Our Standard run didn't go as planned either but the first 2/3 of the run went great. The final loop from the dogwalk to the weaves and the jumps after seemed to not be Vizsla-friendly as both of Ruby's girlfriends, Penny and Lexi, also had problems and NQ'd in that area. Ruby popped her weaves as I found myself on the wrong side of the poles and tried a front cross. Then she took an off-course jump and it was a complete train wreck. LOL!

Then we had the THREE hour wait for Rally. River made his debut and did absolutely fabulous! He placed third with a score of 93. I was very proud of my little guy but I did notice that I got him out too early to practice as when we were in the ring he was slow to sit so I think he was tired of sitting so much. He also had a weird little reaction when his feet first hit the rubber mats, like "What is this?!?!" but he recovered very quickly. I also LOVE this judge - Robert T Self Jr. - this is the second time I've shown under him and he's just very nice, helpful and knowledgeable.

Sunday went a little better but I didn't push her for speed at all. My friend Kim had fallen twice on Saturday and Ruby wasn't that crazy about the AstroTurf. She took 2nd in JWW and 2nd in STD but had a nasty slip on her face when I did a front cross a tad late. I totally forgot to bring the stuff for her feet to help keep her from slipping, otherwise I'm sure she would have run a lot faster. I just wish she'd dig her toenails in like a lot of other dogs will do but she seems to run very high up on her feet. Not many points this weekend but we don't need them for our MACH; she earned QQ #17.

Another three hour wait for rally and this time I had heard the judge was rather "unkind." He was a substitute judge under whom I'll never trial again. Many people there told me how bad, mean he is but I thought that the course seemed simple enough; easier than Saturday's and we shouldn't have any problems...Ha! Before we went into the ring however, I had a woman with the club ask me a million questions about River, his breed, etc. It turns out she's from Animal Talent of Chicago and she thought he'd be great for commercials and print work. So she gave me all her info so I could send her some pictures of him and get his portfolio started. Maybe the boy can make us some money and start paying for Ruby's entry fees. LOL!

Okay here's the bad news: the gruff judge handled things a lot differently than other rally judges I've shown under in the past. Most of them say, "Handler #XX," and you walk into the ring. Most of them are also toward the middle of the course. He, however, was right next to the start line and said, "Handler #XX and dog breed," not good for us because he couldn't pronounce Kooikerhondje, gave me a dirty look and leaned in as he looked me up and down and made eye contact with River! I pronounced it for him twice and he just gave me another dirty look as River tried to say "hi" to him. Things were not starting well...I get River back a little. The judge makes me stand there for a minute and then says "Ready?" I say "Yes," and he says "Forward."

We started out okay but the judge followed us about two signs back and at the first stationary sign River tried to go say "hi" again. So tight leash and then he wouldn't perform the halt/sit right away. He was very distracted and sniffy though I thought River's 270's and 360 were nice and tight. The very last station was a call to front, finish right and I lost River again on the finish part when he went to sniff the broad jump by the edge of the ring. I got him to finish and walk nicely out of the ring but the judge NQ'd us. The highest score he gave out was an 85. I felt it was the judge's fault though. I also find it odd that I've only trialed under maybe 12 different Rally judges but I already have two that I will never show under. In agility I've trialed under close to a hundred judges and only two have question marks, like check what the surface is before trialing under them, or be careful what you say to your dog in the ring if this judge is in a bad mood, stuff like that. These obedience people are 'drunk with power' as my friend Amy would say.

This coming weekend we'll be doing Dock Diving on Saturday in Berwyn and agility outside in Plano on Sunday. I hope we finally get some nice weather. I'm really sick of the rain and cold; I think a dose of warm sunshine will do me some good. =)

My Ephemeral Time in the #1 Spot

2009-05-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

After my dismal weekend and blowing two jumpers runs with Double Q's on the line it's clear I can't handle this pressure to stay on top so I'm just going to call it quits. I just read Melanie's blog this morning and Austin got more points on Friday than we did all weekend. I've just lost the lead we've had for months in the last two trials ~ though I will admit that there weren't many points to be had. Even if we stay in the Top 5, I won't be making the long trip to California for the AKC Agility Invitational, so why bother? I know she's the faster, better dog out there and she was the fastest red dog at Nationals.

Then something happened on Sunday that made me wake up and see what really matters. I was training weaves with Ruby when River t-boned her while she was weaving. She just stopped and wouldn't put weight on her right rear. River got scruffed and put into the house - I've about had it with him doing that to her - and I went back to Ruby and rubbed her leg for awhile and gave her a bunch of treats. We walked around a bit and she just seemed a little stiff. Then she was trotting and loping around so I got some really good treats and she decided that she wanted to work so we did some sepentines to the weaves and she was moving like her old self. She must have just got a stinger but it really scared me and I'm just glad she's okay.

Anyway, I'm waving the white flag; I give up. The 24" class in our area is just sooo competitive that we don't stand a chance. All the 24" Border Collies, Ashlee & Spirit, Kim & Jersey, Abby & Whitney, Kelly & Preacher not to mention Kris & Clever and Renee & Belle who just went to World Team Tryouts. Even Scott and his Terv, Partner beat us on occasion so there's not many points to be had. I'm sure the AKC will be SOOOOO happy that the same OLD f---ing dogs will be there. Nothing like seeing the same 8 and 6 year old grizzled vizslas running around with their handlers for the last 4 years in a row. Great! I'll be sure to tune into Animal Planet next year. NOT!

I only wish I hadn't gone to Nationals. Melanie got a good look at her competition and is pushing her old dog to the limits; I feel sorry for him. And I'm sure she reported back to those catty California women. There is something to be said about having anonymity. Oh well. This WAS to be our year, not so much anymore.

NOCI - Crystal Lake, IL - May 1 - 3, 2009

2009-05-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Friday was an early start for us, not good since I was at the N9NE Steakhouse 10 Year Anniversary Party on Thursday night, 5 hours of sleep ~ fabulous! I got there a little later than I wanted to but had plenty of time to catch both general walk-thrus.

Ruby was the first 24" dog on the line all three days so I had to cut my walk-thrus short and make sure she was pottied and warmed up properly. Friday's STD course was tricky and I was a little foggy so I ended up on the wrong side of the a-frame. Ruby saved the run and took first place. I was just cracking up at my ineptness and had so much fun running her that day. She had a nice run in JWW later and placed third for QQ #16.

On another note: the club had decided to use their new spooky table this weekend and our judge on Friday, Tim Verrelli commented that he's never had to NQ that many dogs for just a table fault. The dogs saw the table and launched thinking it was a panel jump. I'm glad Ruby hung on, she was a very good girl. See the picture below of our friends Fergus and Katie:

I'm also very proud to say that this picture was taken on Sunday during Part One of Fergus' first Double Q! Nice job you guys! =) We are very proud of you! BTW Fergus had no issues with the table. ;)

Saturday: Ruby had another fabulous run in STD but she was a slow as we had dock diving practice Friday night. I just couldn't deny her the thing she's loves to do the most. =) Then I totally forgot the JWW course and got lost. That really sucked because she was moving! I got her back on track and she did everything that I asked, finishing nicely. I'm starting to see a pattern here with either being hung-over or sleep deprived and my QQ rate...

Sunday: Pretty much the same scenario. We Q'd in STD but I pulled her off a jump in JWW and she was running so nice and fast! UGH! I'm so frustrated with myself and I kept thinking that I'd get lost again when I was waiting to go into the ring.

This brings me to a point: Why are people so mean and catty? I've never tried to be anything but nice to everyone and supportive then they turn around and stab you in the back or say nasty things right before you walk into the ring. So not worth it anymore and I know there will be only a few people I'll be talking to at trials coming up. One of my friends also had an incident with her dog and after it happened she apologized to the owner of the other dog - he only got snarled at. The woman was just mean to her and wouldn't accept her apology. Stuff happens, they're dogs for Christ sakes, and the dogs never came close enough to even touch each other. It just amazes me because we do this to have fun with our dogs. I guess that's another reason to like USDAA better.

Contact Sports Agility - USDAA - April 25 & 26, 2009

2009-04-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Weird weekend for us. I had company this weekend that may have thrown Ruby off slightly and the weather was just gross and cold. Other than that it was a blast and all my favorite people were at this trial. =)

Ruby went 8 for 10 and had six of those runs on Saturday. She did start getting freaked out again by all the whistles and buzzers during the games but came around during the Standard and Jumpers classes to be more like her usual self and not so slow and worried.

We finished her Starters Jumpers (3rd and 1st Places), Starters Snooker (1st place) and Starters Pairs titles this weekend. She also had clean runs in Round One of Steeplechase ~ but was slow and choking on a Liver Lady treat right before we went into the ring. Oops! though she picked it up at the end ~ and Grand Prix, which was a tough course. She also picked up her first Advanced Gamblers and Advanced Standard Q's taking 2nd Place in both.

I may have to try USDAA outside again where the sounds aren't going to echo as much and see if that helps keep her more motivated during the games. She did great last September in Wilmot so maybe we'll try that one again.

Paw Power Blues - Merrillville, IN - April 18 & 19, 2009

2009-04-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

We finally got some nice weather leading up to this trial. Unfortunately, it made it very warm and humid inside the facility on Friday when we unloaded the equipment. It carried over into Saturday and they finally turned the air on for Sunday.

Ruby ran very well at this trial; our goal was just to break our NQ curse at this facility. We had some close runs last year but no Q's. Last year I was a little emotionally distraught, however this year was quite the opposite. Ruby was fast and happy and so was I. =)

Saturday we just had one tiny problem in each run. In STD I pulled her out of the weaves by getting way too far ahead of her and crossing, it was almost like I was running backwards. I can't blame her for that one. In JWW she dropped a bar - she NEVER drops bars - and looking at the video she just took off WAY too early for the jump.

Sunday we had two nice runs and Ruby smoked the STD course! She placed 3rd and ran it 24 seconds under SCT at 4.55 YPS! JWW was another fun course and she was clean for QQ #15. We're getting close and have a bunch of AKC trials coming up in May. I can't wait! =)

Glen Carbon - GSLAC - April 11 & 12, 2008

2009-04-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

After getting my car repaired last Friday morning, the pups and I headed down to Glen Carbon for two days of a three-day trial. I met up with Tammy and she and I grabbed dinner at Zapatas, a Mexican Restaurant right near the hotel. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area. Really good food and they have different things on the menu. Nancy also joined us and most of our conversation turned to Vizsla talk and breeding and bloodlines; what we like, what we don't like, etc. It's really cool listening to them and I'm learning a lot. No snipe-y heads or gay tails! Yuck!

This trial was indoors at a soccer facility on turf. Ruby hasn't run on turf for over a month so I thought it would be interesting to see how she adjusted. The turf also wasn't like the turf we normally run on. This was a very tight AstroTurf instead of the longer plastic faux grass with the black rubber beads. She did seem a little hesitant on our first run on Saturday which was Standard. I read the running order wrong at the gate and almost missed our run (turns out there was another Ruby toward the end of the 24" dogs which I thought was us ~ oops!). It wasn't a tough course to remember but it was tight in some spots. Not a big deal but she had a slight bobble as she misread a front cross and ran with me right by the aframe instead of taking it.

The rest of the course she ran beautifully even getting a tight turn off a jump to the table. Most dogs went straight for the DW as the jump faced it and their handlers tried sloppy, backing up front crosses but I just hung back and indicated a jump/wrap to the table. I made sure she hit the yellow on the DW as it was a similar set-up as the Challengers Round at Nationals (DW/jump to finish) that got a lot of dogs blowing their contacts. I won't mention who got away with the blatant bad call that Sherry Porter made in the 24" class that day. This dog jumped clear over the yellow, not even a toe on the red line and she didn't call it. She just stared and it looked like she thought about it but her hands never went up! The dog ended up winning the class. Not good...if you're going to set up that kind of challenge in your course design you better get your A-- there to judge it!

We then had a nice, big running JWW course by Blair Kelly. He's a really nice but tough judge and likes to analyse the results on his courses. I've heard he's a mathematician or something. Ruby did really well and had adjusted to the turf though I have to work on where I set her up as we had a slow start off the line. It was a tunnel start and I could have/should have set her up further back but she's been acting up on the start line these last few trials; not sitting where I tell her, throwing her body around and barking at me. She's nuts! She placed 4th in JWW.

Saturday night the three of us went out for dinner again and Whitney joined us for sushi at Nori in Edwardsville. Good stuff and I'm glad she came out with us. It was a lot of fun! =)

Sunday was another good day with lots of straight lines on both courses. If you couldn't get there, you were in trouble. Ruby placed 2nd in Standard and 3rd in JWW for QQ Number 14. Now we just need a couple of good weekends...

NAC - Concord, NC - March 27 - 29, 2009

2009-04-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

Nationals!!!!!!!!! Wow! All I can say is it was very exciting to be a part of such a great group of dogs and handlers. It was a great facility and the surface, though interesting, red North Carolina clay, the dogs seemed to love it! Ruby did very well at her first National event and I couldn't be more proud of her.

On Friday for State Team competition she was 11th overall in the 24" division after Round 1. In Round 2 she had a wrong course that was my fault as I was pushing her a bit for speed. Patience...but the rest of her run was lovely. :-)

For the National Agility Championships on Saturday and Sunday, of the three vizslas competing she had the fastest time in Round 1 (Standard) and Round 3 (Hybrid) and posted the 2nd fastest time in Round 2 (Jumpers) because she had some wide turns. As she missed her contact on the DW in Round 1 (that's a fault and it cost us 18 points) she ended up 49th out of 123 dogs in the 24" jump height.

It was a great experience and we had a lot of fun! I can't wait until next year. I'll put up a link to the video...if I ever get it from BowWow Video...

And here it is:

Louisville, KY - March 13 - 15, 2009

2009-03-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy and haven't had time to update the blog. I guess the long trips are wearing on me and I didn't feel like doing the write up! I'm just going to be brief here on Louisville since we're leaving for Nationals tomorrow.

We drove down on Thursday to do three days of the trial. I entered Ruby in the ISC classes as well as Standard and Jumpers.

Friday: Standard was an awesome course and Ruby took 3rd place. JWW we had trouble right at the start: Ruby took an off-course jump instead of the tunnel (obstacle #2) I don't know what that was all about. Then immediately we were in ISC JWW, no break. My understanding is that they are NOT supposed to start ISC Classes until the regular AKC classes are finished. She was a little slow and probably tired as well. We were clean though and she placed 4th.

Saturday: Another Q in Standard and a very nice run. JWW again she takes an off-course (tunnel this time) don't know why as I called her THREE times getting progressively louder. She pretty much gave me the finger and went into the tunnel anyway. ISC Standard, again run at the same time as regular JWW. It looked like a tricky course but it actually ran really well. Our only problem was that I tried to rear cross right before the A-frame. I NEVER rear-cross contacts so she bailed. We earned a refusal but we completed the obstacle and finished the course very nicely.

Sunday: Another wonderful fast Standard run; she placed 2nd only 1.11 seconds behind Preacher. I was very proud of her! =) JWW we finally got a Q! She was fifth overall but she went pretty wide in some spots as I didn't get information to her early enough. It was another QQ (Lucky #13) and I'm very happy with how well she did all weekend.

We leave for Nationals tomorrow afternoon and I'm getting really excited. Updates when we get back.

Lots of Updates

2009-03-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

It's been really busy so not much time to blog but lots of good stuff.

Blitzen at IKC ~ February 21 & 22. Ruby had some good runs the first day but had a lot of problems with the surface. It was pretty slippery. It was so hard to watch her trying to run fast yet having a hard time staying on her feet. We NQ'd on both runs the first day but she QQ'd on Sunday to make up for it. She had a nice 3rd place run in Jumpers and won her class in Standard. That's QQ #11!

Smack Dab in Naperville, IL ~ February 27 - March 1. She had some great runs Friday and Saturday. Sunday was kind of a mess (all me) but she was working great for me and as always trying her heart out. I love my little red-headed girl! =) On Friday she QQ'd and that makes #12!

Though the trial was long it was great catching up with everyone and hanging with people I haven't seen in a while. Katie and Fergus looked great this weekend, finishing his AXJ title. Ashlee and Spirit QQ'd on Sunday and had some awesome runs all weekend. It was great having Julia and Darby back - next time we'll be putting a bet on all front crosses! =) Of course hanging with Whit and Grant - the Lab Collectors - was fun as always. Go Pants! And Whitney and Rumor are really starting to come together as a team.

In a week we leave for Louisville, KY. I'm really looking forward to this trial. Should be a lot of fun and Ruby will be back on dirt ~ her favorite running surface! I entered her in ISC Classes to prep for State Team Competition at Nationals. I've also entered River in his first Rally trial and I think he'll do great.

River and Zoey hanging out at the Naperville trial.

Quick update: River did NOT get into the Rally trial in Louisville. Onofrio didn't get his entry before the trial closed. I don't know why, maybe something with the Post Office but I definitely mailed it on time.

Quick Update on River

2009-02-18T06:33:00.003-08:00

Yesterday in the Beginner Puppy Class Dana told me that River is ready for the Advanced Puppy Class as he can run short sequences already. Eight months old and he's WAY ahead of the curve. I've very proud of my boy! =)

So in last night's class he was great. He's getting very confident on running the dogwalk with some good speed. I can sequence three to four obstacles together for him such as jump, tunnel, dogwalk, tire or jump into the weaves to another jump. He's doing fantastic and is such a happy boy. Unfortunately, I didn't get any video of him this week - not sure why - but I hope to get some soon. I may have to have Dude's mom, Emily tape us and I can return the favor to her.

Another thing that Dana and I talked about was his problem turning to the left. He'll let me stretch him but as I said before he was having problems with turning to the left for rear crosses and still isn't comfortable turning around on the dogwalk if I ask him to turn left. Turning right is no problem for either the dog walk or rear crosses. She asked if he's been adjusted and of course he hasn't. He's a puppy so I never thought he'd need it although with as hard as he is on his body and as rough as he plays I wouldn't be surprised if something is out of alignment. Looks like I'll need to put a call in to Dr. Mayer for him.

Nothing to report...

2009-02-16T09:09:00.001-08:00

It's been a dead zone lately as far as agility trials go so we've just been concentrating on training. River has been awesome in class, such a good boy. Ruby has been great as well. She's back to her loud, speedy self in class and has had awesome 2o/2o positions on the DW and teeter. Her DW speed is also back to where it was before the pee incident in Lake St. Louis. See below:

If you look up 'mortified' in the dictionary next to it you'll see this picture: http://kevin.zenfolio.com/p902518968/h34bc0d39#h27c2f5f3

Kurt has been awesome in helping me make Ruby faster. She's fast as it is but using my voice can help her turn more quickly and makes her much more responsive. We still have a long way to go with making her turns tighter. Mostly it's my timing as we really haven't been in Excellent that long, only a year, and she's gotten considerably faster as she's learned to love the game. At home I've been training both of them on end position with the travel plank my dad made me. I can lie it flat or pull the legs out and it mimics the angle of the end of the DW. Right now it's the pups fav thing to do (can't beat anything that involves lots of cheese! :)) We also work one-jump stuff every day in the basement and whomever gets left upstairs to wait their turn throws a very vocal temper-tantrum!

I've also been doing some strengthening exercises with both of them for their rear. River I'm not too worried about as he has an explosive jump and his little legs are very muscular for such a young pup. I can't wait to see him do some dock diving this summer - should be a hoot! I'm mostly working on stretching his sides so that he can turn more evenly. He turns great to the right but not to the left and he had some issues doing that on the DW.

I have class with both dogs tomorrow night and I'll try to get some video of River. I've been teaching him the rear cross and he's been doing great crossing from my right side and switching to my left but going left to right has been a little hard for him. I don't know if it's due to his having a hard time turning to the left or if it's something that I'm doing. I did eventually get him to do a rear cross but it was more of a flip, like they showed in the "Pigs Fly" article in Clean Run this month and I had to help him quite a bit. I also could only do it on the flat, where he was having no problem doing the right turn rear cross over a small jump. I'm going to have Dana look at it for me tomorrow night.

We have two days of trialing at the IKC Show in Chicago this weekend and I'll update on that as well. I've entered Ruby in the FAST class this time and I'm hoping we get at least one leg. That would be nice. =)

Scott County Kennel Club - Jan. 30th & Feb. 1st, 2009

2009-02-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

So I do want to start this post off by saying that for the entire four days of trialing I was without my agility bag. I forgot it, just left it in the kitchen all ready to go and I didn't realize it until I started bringing stuff in for the Lake St. Louis trial. I didn't have my soccer shoes, Ruby's special treats, her vitamins/supplements, out First Aid Kit and my camera. Thank God Tammy got a new camera and taped our runs in Lake St. Louis. Anyway, I just felt off the entire time, like I was forgetting something, which I had. We kinda lost our mojo.

After what happened on Friday in the Standard ring I was a little worried about how Ruby would be on the dogwalk. That wasn't really the issue however as it was more like: who is this dog next to me? She was nervous and worried, carrying her tail tightly between her legs. I haven't seen her like that since the last Fourth of July when our red-necks neighbors were blowing off M-80's! A huge difference from the dog I had on Thursday night.

We had Standard first on Saturday - a tricky course from Tom Slattery. I usually try to get her excited by asking her to speak. She tried but a bark just wouldn't come out of her. She did bark when I left her on the start line and was off like a rocket when I released her. The course started jump to dogwalk & she wasn't hesitant like I thought she'd be but she did just run through the yellow. No stop but not creeping either. I ended up being behind her a couple of times during the run as I just wasn't sure how to handle her nor did I know how she would be running. She did have a gorgeous triple to weaves entry and I got behind her again when she hit the aframe. With her running aframe I need to be ahead of her to push, front cross, rear cross or pull. She almost took an off-course jump but a hard call saved it and we qualified. It was by no means a pretty run but only three dogs in our class qualified and we took 3rd place. I was very proud of her for putting her game face on and gave her lots of "good girl's" and "awesome job" and gave her a lot of super high value treats. 'Puppy Crack' as Kim and I call them.

Jumpers was next - a fairly easy course from Lisa Haidle-Potts with a high Q rate. She still had her tail tucked and again after this run I treated her HEAVILY and gave her lots of praise. I do think she could have been faster though and we qualified but I honestly don't remember the course at all unless I look at it on paper. I was pretty beat on Friday night so I took a Tylenol PM to guarantee some sleep; it made me a little spacey however.

Sunday I pretty much had my girl back. She was excited and barking for our Standard run. The course Lisa had for us was pretty tricky with a lot of wraps and tight angles. We were doing great until the end. I just didn't see her taking an off course tunnel after the table. The very last time I walked it I found out it was a sit on the table and thought "Oh I can do a lead out push to the chute and she won't even look at the tunnel." Somehow I forgot about that during our run and tried to front cross which was late and the backwards motion just sent her right into the off-course tunnel. Even tried to call her off it but she just looked at me and went in anyway. Oh well...as I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to lead out from the table...

The Jumpers course that Tom designed was a bit trickier than Lisa's and quite a few dogs missed their weave entrances. Ruby didn't however and was she great though at one point I could hear River barking during our run. We were crated right by the Jumpers ring and he could see us at the start line. I momentarily forgot were I was for a second as Ruby and I were running but we pulled it out and took 3rd place. So I think I have my dog back and Shawna was kind enough to tape our runs for us so I'll post the links when she uploads them. All I know is do not take Tylenol PM two days in a row during a trial. Oh and don't forget your agility bag. =)

Tri-County Agility Club - Jan. 29 - 30, 2009

2009-02-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

It was great getting to sleep in a bit on Thursday and then driving down to Lake St. Louis for an evening agility trial - Excellent Only - felt kinda weird. A very nice facility, this trial was held at the National Equestrian Center on packed dirt.

We had Standard first, judged by Laura English. It looked like a fun course and when I got Ruby to the line she was INSANE, pulling me and barking to get into the ring. She barely held her start line and was off like a red bullet. She did hold her DW contact however ~ what a good girl! She ended up winning the 24" class easily, over a second faster than the 2nd place dog and earning 42 MACH points! She ran it at 4.23 YPS! I'm so proud of this run and when Tammy puts it up on youtube for me, I'll provide a link.

Jumpers was next, a really nice course from Lavonda Herring, and again Ruby almost broke her start line. We had a gorgeous run going but I called her too early for a turn and pulled her off a jump. Once again I blow a QQ! Oh well, even with me having to turn her and resend her over the jump she ran it well under SCT at 5.27 YPS.

Friday was an interesting day. Excellent ran last so the dogs all sat in their crates for an hour and a half before they got to do anything. We had a perfect, fast run going...only the dogwalk, tunnel, weaves and a jump sequence left to go. It was pretty much in the bag. As Ruby came down the DW she slowed down and I thought to myself, WOW! I'm going to have two beautiful DW's this weekend! But as she slowed down to the yellow, she stopped and peed on the end. I had turned to do a front cross and started to release her when the judge said "Hold on." I said, "Oh crap! She's peeing!" and picked her up. Lavonda called for the clean up crew and I stood there holding Ruby and talking to the judge. I apologized to her and she said that it was no big deal, they're dogs and she thought Ruby just got excited and just couldn't hold it. Anyway I was mortified and Lavonda just told me some funny stories about what her dogs have done to her and I carried her out of the ring after apologizing again.

Oddly enough this isn't the first time Ruby has done this. Those of you that know her or have been in class with her know that she's done this on Dana's dogwalk a number of times. I don't know why she chooses this spot to go when she has to go or why she does it. And yes, the times that she's done it I have pottied her before class so I have no idea why she suddenly gets the urge to go when she's on the dogwalk. It's not like she's gulping down water in between runs and before this run at the trial she wouldn't even drink any water. Very strange.

Needless to say neither one of us were mentally there for Jumpers. It wasn't a great course to begin with and I cued her too early for a turn after a jump which she ended up missing. It caused her to slow down quite a bit and her weaves were methodical. The middle part of the course we did well and then she took an off-course near the end I didn't anticipate at all. At that point it didn't really matter and we headed out to Kewanee soon after. The photographer did get some great shots of her during her Standard run though. I'll post on Kewanee soon as Saturday posed some very interesting problems for us.

Tuesday Night Class

2009-01-28T07:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on class last night. Unfortunately Dana wasn't there but we had Steve the Agility Nerd fill in for her.

Ruby's Class: It was one of Dana's typical evil courses though for some reason it felt very easy to me. Ruby ran it very well all three times and was even perfect the first time through. Getting information to her sooner really works! Wow! That Kurt sure is smart! =) Ruby didn't even have a problem with the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination because I told her where she was going as she exited the tunnel two obstacles away. Her contacts were spot on and she held her dogwalk & teeter end position beautifully. She flew over the dogwalk and only Elan had a faster dogwalk. I couldn't have been more happy with how beautifully she was working. Now if only we could get those stops on contacts at a trial!

River's Puppy Class: This week went a little better and Lisa added some structure by timing us with a stopwatch & then having us rotate to a different station. This helps EVERYONE get a chance to work on everything. I have to say that overall I think River is the best and most well balanced puppy in the class. Yes, I may be a bit biased but he's one of the youngest puppies and can do a heck of a lot more than the older teenage dogs can. I can actually send him out to a jump - just between the jump standards at his young age - and he understands 180's and 270's already, send him through a tunnel, direct him into the weaves etc. I've had to start closing the poles at the ends a bit as he was just launching himself through the first three and then collecting to single-stride the rest. When I did that he hopped between the first three poles and then switched to single-striding them to the end. It will be interesting to see how his weaves will develop. He also ran the lowered aframe beautifully. I have one of the most focused puppies and can work him off-leash most of the time.

I'm very proud of both of my kids as they both did so well in class this week. =)

Semi-private with Kurt and some babbling...

2009-01-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

I was invited by my friend Kris to participate in some private instruction last night with Kurt Matushek, an AKC Judge and fellow competitor. Kurt was also selected to judge the World Team Tryouts this May so he can add that to his impressive resume. I feel so lucky and grateful to be included in this as I clearly don't know what I'm doing! LOL! I know I'll feel more comfortable with my handling going to Nationals as this is my first trip there with my first agility dog.

I know I need to get information to Ruby a lot sooner, tell her where to go and let her be responsible for the obstacle. She knows her job and how to do it, so cuing her sooner or verbally telling her what's coming up will help with her speed as well. I know she's a fast dog but my handling is slowing her down; my late crosses and late cues make her go very wide and that eats up tons of time. I really never saw myself being this competitive with her (I just wanted her to do well and be happy running agility) but I would like to go to the Invitational this December so I have to get her faster so we can keep getting those MACh points and stay in the Top Five. Part of the problem is that I don't like to yell at my dog and tend to be a more quiet handler but as with what happened last weekend in FAST class, if I don't yell "GO JUMP!" at her, she barks at me which tells me that I'm not giving her enough information.

So the lesson: Kurt set up a couple of nested courses with just tunnels and jumps as this is handling only. The jumps were at odd angles so difficult for the dogs, especially large non-BC dogs. I think they/we all did really well and Kurt would stop us at different points and have us work on the portion of the course that gave us the most trouble to tighten the dogs up and to send them out so we could get into position to cue the next turn. Kurt's philosophy on handling coincides with mine as I've done some handling camps with Ann Braue and my current instructor, Dana Pike, shares the same or similar handling approach. So the "backy-uppy" to cue a tight wrap, etc. Our last course was a nice speed circle to a loop to keep the dogs happy and motivated.

I do feel like I got a lot out of it but I'm still not sure what my goals with Ruby really are: Tighten her up and run faster or run clean and finish her MACH? Do I really care if she's in or stays in the Top Five for Invitationals and at what expense to her? Not to mention my savings account! LOL! She is in great shape but I'm going to start working on improving that - strengthening her hind end and stretching and massaging her more regularly. Kris wants me to bring her over so she can get some measurements on her. I may have to bump her up to the 26" class for awhile in hopes that she'll win her class and get more points. It's hard for us to place at large trials but she has no problem doing that in the 24" class at smaller trials though lately she's been placing behind all the top border collies in that height. So she's definitely no slouch but...

On another note, I need to get in a little better shape myself. I've been feeling a little of the winter bloat creeping on and all the walking I do plus running my dog isn't enough right now. Though maybe it's due to lack of agility trials around here. I've started doing some core strengthening workouts and butt and leg workouts to help with running on dirt as that seems to take the biggest toll on me, especially my bad foot. I'm hoping that having better balance will help with that.

Well Kurt will see us trial for two days this week and can give me some feedback on our runs. Onto Lake St. Louis Thursday and Friday then Kewanee on Saturday and Sunday. Go Little Red Girl! Go!

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Ret. Trial - Jan 18, 2009

2009-01-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

Not a good way to start off the year but I may have had such a bad day because of lack of sleep and psyching myself out while I was lying in bed staring at the ceiling. Not good. I only chose to do one day of this trial as I wasn't sure what the crating space would be like and how the weather conditions would effect it.

It was pretty cold outside, in the low twenties but sunny and the wind had died down a little. Inside the barn was pretty cozy but crowded. I could still feel the cold coming up from the ground through my shoes so I was curious how the surface would effect Ruby's running. Ruby's last couple of trials have all been on dirt except for Hounds. This facility is a sand and crushed rubber mix; some dogs like it, some don't. She hasn't been at this facility since the first weekend in November and I remember her knocking a bar the first time she ran inside here when it was cold. Sure enough she knocked a bar in Jumpers our first class of the day. I could tell she was slipping a bit and adjusting during that first run but she ran the rest of the course great and I got in all my front crosses as planned.

Standard was next and I took a lead out to a "C" shaped tunnel. She was a little antsy at the start line, scratching, pulling and barking. Took me a minute to settle her enough to sit while I led out. I released her and she took the wrong side of the tunnel! All points except one told her to go into the correct side of the tunnel: my shoulder was open briefly as I released her but my feet, hips and hand were pointed the correct direction. Who knew? The rest of her run was nice and fast and I got a lead out from the table so I was happy with how she was working.

FAST didn't go so well. We haven't done FAST since the East Lansing trial back in November and I actually had to yell "Go jump!" at her so she would at least take the first send obstacle. Oh well. Not a big deal but I got to retry the lead-out I messed up in Standard and she did it correctly this time. 0 for 3 this trial. Hopefully that won't happen again and I have to say it's been a LONG time since we haven't at least Q'd in Jumpers.

We have four days of trialing coming up and I can't wait! We're back on dirt and should have some great judges.

River Update - Puppy Agility Class

2009-01-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

River had his very first puppy agility class last night and I couldn't be more proud of him. He's very confident and focused on his mommy. His 2o/2o position was beautiful on all three of the contact obstacles (mini-teeter, a-frame & the lowered dogwalk) and he took to running them very quickly and confidently. He had lots of play breaks and some cuddle time as well.

He's a very happy worker and very willing to please his mommy and figure out what I'm asking him to do. He had no problem running the open weave poles and right now single-strides them beautifully. The tire was no problem either. The only thing we need to work on immediately is strengthening his left side. He would turn around on the dogwalk to the right but wouldn't turn to the left. Some simple stretches should help with that.

I do think however that I need to start re-reading Linda M's Jumping Skills articles - well, I have the book now - and work on sending him out to obstacles as well as doing more 'One Damn Jump' stuff with him. He's such a great little dog!

More updates on River Puppy soon as I'm having so much fun with him! =)

December 27 & 28, 2008 - Christmas Trial - Grove City, OH

2008-12-29T09:46:00.000-08:00

Despite the horrendous driving conditions - ice, fog, rain - the three of us made it down to Grove City in one piece although a lot later than I had hoped. Once again I have to say how much I love this trial site. With nice, firm black dirt and big rings it's an agility dog's dream. The people are always very nice and friendly and it's great to see such amazing handlers and their dogs.

After having 3 weeks off from agility, and this means no class time as well, I wasn't expecting much from our first day. I figured that we'd just get some of the kinks out and work on some problem areas - table, weaves etc. Surprisingly Ruby did fairly well in the first class of the day which was Standard. We had a tiny miscommunication at the beginning when she ran into me at the start. I led out two jumps for a lead-out push and I either didn't move soon enough or she just didn't know where I was going. Anyway she almost took me out at the knees and I thought maybe the judge had called us for contact but she didn't as I guess I didn't change the direction of Ruby's path - apparently I was just IN Ruby's path, stupid handler that I am. =) Oops! She ended up being 5th in her class and all the dogs that placed ahead of her were really nice Border Collies. So I can't complain...well sure I can! Darn Border Collies!!! =)

Jumpers was a very nice course by Scott Stock and Ruby placed 4th, again behind three Border Collies, earning her 8th QQ.

Sunday we had another nice run in Standard and she took 4th place. A very fun course to run, I just wish I could trust her to stay on the table in a down. She's been such a brat about it lately. A sit maybe but a down...ggrrrr!!! Her darn elbows come up & I have to babysit her so I didn't get the lead out I wanted and was a little out of position for the next obstacle. It all came out okay though and we had another nice run in Jumpers for QQ #9. We're almost halfway to her MACh! Very exciting! I just wish I could have stayed for the third day of the trial. Oh well...

Snow Day - December 19, 2008

2008-12-22T06:34:00.000-08:00

How we spent our snow day last Friday:

Lots of running...

Some hunting for mice while Mom shoveled...

And some good old raw bones!

We love when Mommy is home!

Christmas Cluster - December 13, 2008

2008-12-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late posting this, sorry, we've been a little busy. =) Last Saturday we headed out to the Rosemont Convention Center for the annual Christmas Cluster. I entered Ruby in Rally but there was also a Conformation show going on there...uh...actually the main attraction.

Ruby and I got there a little late as when I read the Judging Program it said that walk throughs for Excellent B would be at 9:00am. Apparently the judge wasn't aware of this and didn't allow for an Excellent A walk through. She was ready to start judging us as soon as she was done with Excellent B but finally allowed us a VERY brief look at the course. It wasn't difficult by any means and it consisted of stuff that Ruby knows very well. She practiced the stations perfectly outside of the ring, however the second we stepped into the ring she became sniffy.

I snapped my fingers a couple of times and clapped my hands once earning some deductions but once I had her attention she decided to listen. She wasn't perfect however and I opted to re-do three of the stations as I knew she could perform much better and more precisely. If you choose to re-do a station it's a deduction of 3 points, much better than losing 10 points if the station is performed incorrectly. She also barked at me a few times, which I'm sure garnered another deduction of points. Brat! But she finished beautifully to pattering of applause and we headed to the last station, the Honor.

In the past she's performed the Honor perfectly. All the dog has to do is sit or down at the end of their leash and stay until the handler/dog team running the exercise is finished. The judge decides what position she wants the dogs in at the beginning of the trial. This time it was a sit and the Honor Judge started talking to me about Ruby because she has a vizsla too. All I did was take my attention from Ruby for a split second and she laid down. Prior to the new judging changes this would have NQ'd us, as it stands now it cost us 10 points. Strangely enough after signaling her back into a sit, the dog running the exercise charged right in her face and she didn't budge an inch. After all was said and done, she ended up passing and taking 4th place. I truly felt that we had a bad showing but it was enough to pass and place so I'm not going to argue! =) She now only needs one more leg for her Rally Excellent title. Yea!

Tammy and Lexi were entered too and they did very well. Lexi finished in 1st place in the Advanced A Class finishing her Rally Advanced title. Way to go girls!

Tammy and I did some shopping and watched some very gorgeous vizslas in the show ring! I think I've figured out where I'm getting my next pup! LOL!

Hounds for the Holidays - Dec. 6 - 7, 2008

2008-12-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hounds for the Holidays is one of my favorite trials. One year I may actually do all four days; this year I decided to only do two for some reason though I could have done Friday & used my last vacation day. Oh well...it's probably a good thing because I think Ruby and I are still a little tired from last weekend.

I drove up on Saturday morning in the snow. Not fun. It took at least a half an hour longer than it should have. We started with JWW and it was a great, fun course from Kimberly Reeher. Ruby ran it very well and fairly quickly though a couple dogs that she usually beats placed and she didn't. Not surprising at a trial of this size but...onto Standard and after a beautiful opening that tripped up a lot of handlers, I screwed her up by not completing a turn and staying open, causing her to back jump the jump she just went over and giving her a horrible approach to the a-frame. I pulled her off as it was just not safe.

Sunday the weather was a little better and we started with JWW again. She qualified but her time was very slow. I heard her trip after I stuffed her into the tunnel and it felt like I waited forever for her to come out. In Standard, another nice course designed by Kim, it was Ruby's turn to be naughty and she just wouldn't collect for her weave entry and then popped because she can't bark and weave at the same time. She's such a blonde! Again we handled the hard parts very nicely but she jumped sideways off the teeter and she wasn't the only dog that did that. Very strange.

I think she was just tired as was I. She'll get a two week break from trialing then we pack up for Ohio since we didn't get into the McCook trial. Don't get me started... }:-(

Capital City Canine Club - November 28 - 30

2008-12-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

The facility is at Michigan State University in the Livestock Pavilion. Agility is run on dirt in two very nice, large rings with stadium seating and the building is climate controlled. Conformation & Obedience/Rally was held in the adjacent building and I brought River in there for a bit on Friday to get him used to a different doggie venue and to work on attention. Quite a few people stopped to pet him and ask what breed he was. A really nice obedience judge gave him the once over and she just loved his coat.

The weekend as a whole was pretty good. I got there kinda late on Friday as I forgot about the time difference, so I missed my FAST walk-thru. No biggie: I just scratched her. We had a little problem with our weaves in Standard as she popped at the tenth pole and I pulled her off the last two jumps. Oops! She had a beautiful Jumpers run though earning 11 MACH points.

On Saturday we got the send in FAST (jump a-frame tunnel) only to get called on the a-frame contact! She's about 60% from that distance so I can't always count on it. Then she took 2nd in Standard with 22 MACH points. I am very proud of that run as we were in the land of giant border collies. Then another Q in Jumpers and 10 MACH points though I was running a bit conservatively for that last QQ. =)

Sunday: FAST was definitely doable and we hit every pointed obstacle. In the send (tunnel teeter double) she got the wrong side of the tunnel but got the rest of the gamble. I was very happy with that and the way she ran the course I made up. Standard was a little tricky, tightly wheeled and had a wrap between two jumps on the course. I chose to handle it like a serpentine instead of pulling her through and it worked but I was just a little behind her and had to fix it. She was a good girl though and we Q'd but only earned 10 MACH points. Jumpers was a blast! A beautiful course with a high Q rate and we got another 13 MACH points. I love this judge (Cynthia Kean). I will def trial under her again and I liked Barbara Diaz' courses too.

I was very happy with Miss Ruby this weekend. We qualified for Nationals with 7 double Q's and 450 MACH points. She's understanding distance work; it's just my direction that we need to fine tune a bit and I'm not quite sure what to do about the a-frame issue. I'm going to start pushing for more speed from her. My foot was bothering me a bit from the surface and standing on concrete (I have a bone chip in my right heel along with some ligament damage in the same foot) but I'd like to run her faster this weekend. Run, Forest, run!

Happy Birthday Ruby Roo!!!

2008-11-26T06:51:00.000-08:00

My very special girl turns four today! What an incredible journey I've had with her and we've learned so much together. She is THE best dog in the whole world and I couldn't be happier or more proud that I get to share my life with her. Current standings, as of November 4th, Ruby is the Number 2 Vizsla in the country for the AKC Agility Invitational 2009.

River and I have 'pupcakes' and other yummy treats planned for her tonight. Then I have to pack for Michigan and try for that last QQ for Nationals! I actually just can't wait to run her and don't really care if we qualify or not! =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Good luck to everyone that's doing the Merrillville trial over the weekend! Have a happy and safe holiday!

Grove City, OH - Bedlington Terrier Club Agility Trial

2008-11-17T07:42:00.000-08:00

The Buckeye Ranch Equestrian Center is a great little place to hold an agility trial. The dirt/mulch mix was an awesome surface for the dogs to run on. Crating space was sufficient and organized and their equipment was really nice. Tons of parking is also a plus. I don't think Ruby could have been happier running anywhere else. Since I didn't have anyone available to video tape my runs, I've attached the course maps from this weekend. I hope Ruby's blog doesn't get shut down by the AKC. =)

Of the three-day trial I only entered Saturday and Sunday. I opted to do FAST on Saturday so Ruby could get used to the footing. She had a very nice run and actually got the send bonus. We had a slight bobble as she misread a front cross and just came to my opposite side as she had already locked onto a jump so we missed the points on the A-frame and an eight point jump I had planned for our course. I was afraid that we didn't have enough points as she also knocked a bar on the double worth two points but we squeaked by with 61 to get her first Excellent A FAST leg.

Standard was similar in the opening to the FAST course but the table was thrown in there where I would have sent her into the gamble area. She must have been a little confused because when I told her to "sit" on the table she offered me a 2o/2o position! I think my jaw actually dropped open as she's NEVER done that before especially on a 24" table. I had no choice but to pull her off and send her back on the table so we NQ'd at that point. The horrible thing is that the tough ending which posed lots of problems for other dogs we aced. So frustrating!

Our Jumpers run went very well; we were connected and she was very focused and fast. She came in fifth behind some very impressive dogs, earning 12 MACH points.

I had a lot of fun hanging out with Susan, Pam and Sue - who both had very impressive days: Elan got her MACh14 and Thunder, who's only been in Preferred since June, got her PAX! We had a great time at dinner Saturday night. I had a blast!

On Sunday I only entered Ruby in Standard and Jumpers, now realizing that it was a huge mistake as she sat in her crate until noon! Needless to say she was a bit of a maniac when we finally got to run. I knew when she came flying out of the chute that I was in trouble...I tried to keep her focused, using her name and an "Easy, table" as we approached the table but she veered off, spun and came back to the table earning us a refusal and an NQ at the table again! She sat immediately however and I took a small lead out to get into position for a front cross into the weaves. She nailed the tough entry only to pop after the third pole. Why? I have no idea though at that point it didn't really matter. She did however have a lovely turn off the A-frame into the tunnel.

I almost left for my long drive home but Susan convinced me that since I paid for my Jumpers run, I may as well stay for it. So I did and Ruby was great again; focused and fast though I had trouble seeing where I was going - I'd been having trouble with my contacts since Friday night. Some gross protein build-up made my vision a little blurry. She placed 4th and earned another 9 MACH points.

So no QQ's this weekend but we racked up 21 more points. We now have 3 more tries to get that last QQ for Nationals up in East Lansing, MI in two weeks. I'm starting to get a little nervous...

I hope you guys enjoy a little bit different post this week. Let me know what you think!

November 9 & 10, 2008 - Fox Valley DTC

2008-11-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

Saturday was absolutely miserable weather. Freezing rain, cold wind and then some snow flurries. Blech! After a minor delay, Ruby, River and I met up with Aunt Hallie, Libby, Christa, Bentley and Royce at the Greene Valley Dog Park in Du Page County. The humans froze but the canines had fun running around and chasing each other. Ruby likes to get a chase game going with Libby and River just runs after them. He thinks he's a Vizsla. =) After a very short play date we all went home.

Sunday the weather was just as gross (can you tell I hate winter?) but Ruby and I had plans inside. I had entered her in a Rally trial because it was nearby; just 15 minutes away in St. Charles. I left River at home which turned out to be a good thing. The building at the Kane County Fairgrounds that the Obedience/Rally trial was being held in was packed. I could barely find room for Ruby's crate!

I wasn't expecting Ruby to do too well as our last time out in Rally we got excused from the ring because she was barking at me. It was a Provisional Judge back in June that didn't know that it's just supposed to be points off; barking isn't an excusable offense unless it's totally out of control and Ruby usually just barks at me at stationary exercises, like the 'Halt, Right Turn, Call to Heel' because I have to leave her. Though I guess that doesn't make sense because she's totally fine with the 'Honor' exercise when I have to be 5 feet away from her. I'm also happy to say that she performed her 'Moving Down' really well.

Anyway...she managed to keep her barking to a minimum, didn't break out of heel too often and she actually passed! She scored an 87 which I am very happy with and she now has one leg toward her Rally Excellent title. Yea! Now I can't wait until our next Rally trial. Maybe we'll do the Christmas Cluster next month.

We're getting packed for our trip to Ohio next weekend and it'll be good to do agility again after a week off. I think I'm becoming addicted to trialing. Do they have a self-help group for that? LOL!

A Quick Update and Some Pics of River

2008-11-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

I just found out through my friend Tammy that Ruby is currently in the Top Five for her breed for Agility. You can pull up a free report on any breed using this link: http://www.akc.org/invitational/top25/agility/ I was shocked to say the least and had to check for myself. It was really nice seeing her name there next to Penny's. =) I also checked out some other breeds and was pleased to see the Clever Dog listed under Golden Retrievers and Jersey listed under Weimaraners, as well as Spirit under the GWP's. The famous Elan and Flash are also in the Top Five list for Border Collies. Very cool seeing local dogs in the top spots. =)

After the Tibetan Terrier trial last Saturday, the pups and I went to my sister's house to take care of her dog, Sable and cat, Senor Salem von Leroy. My sister was in the hospital having a baby. Adorable! Caleb James Jendras born November 1st at 2:28pm, 8lbs 4oz.

Ruby, River and cousin Sable

Sunday at the trial I had Tammy help me with River. I need to teach him to stand for Conformation. He learned "stand" fairly quickly.

Then Tammy took over for a while since she knows what she's doing. =)

I know he's huge already! And only 5 months old...

Tibetan Terrier Agility Trial - Manhattan, IL - AKA Ruby Saves My Hide

2008-11-03T07:31:00.000-08:00

We had some great weather for an early November trial and some tricky courses to go along with it. Judge Tom Woepse designed some interesting courses with hard angles and fun serpentines. Both Jumpers courses had a fast straight run out to the finish. Awesome! =)

Saturday's Standard course had some tunnel discriminations but nothing we haven't seen before. Ruby went a little wide in one spot and spun in the wrong direction after a poorly executed rear cross but she was such a good girl. She even let me rear cross her into the weaves and I was so proud! She placed 2nd and finished her MX title.

Jumpers had an interesting serpentine beginning that Ruby read perfectly. She nailed her weave entrance and turned tightly to come back down the course. Then I called her a little late for a turn as she went wide after a rear cross and had to yell to call her off an off-course jump. She quickly corrected herself and saved a jump that any other dog would have missed. She totally saved that run and earned herself QQ #4.

After running Ruby in JWW for 2nd place, I had the honor of running my friend Alise's dob, Carly. She is a wonderfully smart, sensitive dog and though I did my best, I couldn't help her in the weaves and misdirected her. She was a blast to run and tried her heart out. I was in need of an oxygen tank though as I ran her only four dogs after Ruby. I need to get in shape!

Sunday's Standard run was a lot smoother though Ruby still won't hit her DW contact. She's just trotting through the yellow. It may be time to start marking it again at trials with an Oops! She was a very good girl and placed 3rd.

Jumpers was kinda funny because I walked that course WAY too many times. Since they weren't having separate walk-thrus for the different heights I had to wait until all the little dogs and 20" dogs had run before we went. I completely forgot my plan of action and ended up on the wrong side of the serpentine for a second. I fixed it and Ruby held up her end, doing as I asked but it was pretty sloppy and definitely didn't look very nice. Still only two 24" dogs qualified and Ruby placed 1st. She earned 62 MACH points this weekend. Yea! =)

So now that we only need one more QQ to qualify for Nationals and 37 more MACH points, I made an executive decision and pulled her from the Amherst Junction (Camp Bandy) trial. My friends have convinced me that we will get that one QQ in five attempts instead of seven. I hope they are right as I sent an email to the trial secretary asking her to pull our entry. I've heard some mixed reviews on the surface there and would rather keep her healthy and injury free. Plus she deserves some time off to play and be a dog.

I'll insert some video and add a new post with some pictures of River in the next day or so.

GLBTC Agility Trial - Manhattan, IL Oct. 25 & 26, 2008

2008-10-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice weekend of trialing despite the evil wind and chilly temperatures. Some interesting courses - Saturday's Standard course in particular. The beginning was an exercise in rear crosses with NINE jumps in the opening including the broad jump. I can't say that I've EVER seen that before. We blew it at the tunnel discrimination after the a-frame. I actually left Ruby in the weaves to beat her to the end of the a-frame so I could front cross but she ran into my leg to get the wrong side of the tunnel. I can't tell on the video but I think I was too deep in the pocket and may have over-rotated just a bit.

Jumpers went very well. Ruby and I were definitely on the same wave length and I got all my front crosses where I wanted them. It was really nice having Dana come over after our run and tell me how nice it looked. =) Ruby took 4th place in her class on that run.

Sunday was crazy. We were expecting 50mph gusts of wind and we sure got them. Ruby's Standard run went very well though she got creepy on the DW. When I told her to "touch" she stopped halfway down. She's clearly not understanding the end position right now for some reason. It was a nice run however and she placed 4th in her class.

Outside was Jumpers and the wind had picked up. One jump in particular kept losing it's bars every time the wind would gust so the judge decided to rubber band the bars into the jump cups. Ruby was raring to go and the first part of our run went as planned. As we came around toward the end I had planned a front cross after the double but it was no longer there! I held up for a fraction of a second, remembering to just keep going if the jump is demolished and send your dog between the standards. I ended up doing two very sloppy rear crosses to finish the course cleanly. Surprisingly, Ruby placed 2nd and we earned QQ #3!!!

After all the Excellent dogs ran we ended up rubber banding ALL of the jump bars into the jumps for the Open dogs. I honestly have never seen anything like that. All in all, it was a fun weekend even with the cold weather and wind causing havoc.

I also REALLY need to post some pictures of River soon. He's getting so big and will be starting Puppy Agility class on November 4th. He's very excited! =)

Car-Dun-Al Obedience DTC - October 18 - 19, 2008

2008-10-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

Some very nice runs but no QQ's. On Saturday in Jumpers we had a great run going but I called her off a jump in the pinwheel as I anticipated her taking an off-course jump. !@&#$% I can't believe I did that, so I ruined our chances for a QQ. I was feeling a bit out of sorts this weekend and it was a lot colder than I thought it would be. I guess I was just really off. Standard went very well and Ruby took 1st place in her class with 28 MACH points.

On Sunday someone left her start line a little early on me in Jumpers. She was already coming at me when I released her - so she literally got the jump on me LOL! - and she missed the weave entrance because I wasn't where I wanted to be. I tried to run the rest of the course "balls out," getting all my front crosses in and pretty much leaving her. Brat! She had a very nice run in Standard, momentarily getting distracted by a rock holding the chute open (it was VERY windy) and then I forgot to say her name so she took an off-course jump. It was still a nice run though and her contacts were good.

It was great getting to trial and hang out with Diane & Rookie, Shawna & Crush, and Cindy & Madison. Kim & Jersey joined us on Sunday. Julia & adorable Jolie finished both of her Open titles this weekend. She finished her OAJ on Saturday and had a lovely Excellent Jumpers debut on Sunday. Her Open Standard runs were fabulous and she won her class both days. Go Jolie! =)

Rand Park DTC - AKA Dogs on Ice

2008-10-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, as much as I like this club I just can't put my dog through that again. They either need to change trial locations or SportZone needs to put new footing in the Jumpers ring.

Her Standard run on Saturday was GORGEOUS! I just didn't check the table when I was walking the course and she hit it hard and fast coming off the a-frame. She tried to hold onto it but slid off, so we NQ'd but it was my favorite run from the weekend. She ran it in 44.58, 182 yards, SCT was 64. Fun, fun, fun!

Jumpers was another story all together. I sprayed her feet with Show Spray to help her hang on but it really didn't help. After she had trouble with collecting from jump 2 to 3, I slowed her down a bit. She Q'd and took 1st place but only 10 MACH points and it was carnage for most of my class.

Here are two of her runs from this weekend:

On Sunday she was a bit slower in Standard, possibly because of the course design or maybe because she remembered slipping in Jumpers the day before. It felt ugly but she was clean taking 2nd place and earning 16 MACH points. I was also late on a FC because someone has decided that the DW contact doesn't need to be held at trials and she went really wide. Naughty girl! ;)

Then in Jumpers she missed her weave pole entry after barking once over each jump around the course. I think she was telling me that it was complete crap that I was making her run on that surface and that I should have my head examined. She told me off at the weaves and after four attempts finally did them after I told her that I agreed with her, that it sucked and if she just did them, she'd get lots of yummy treats. She finished the rest of the course clean. Carnage again for most of my class; only two dogs qualified: big, heavy slow dogs.

I've realized that after having no off-courses this weekend that it must have been me causing them the last two trials. I'm either opening up too much, not turning my shoulders right or plain old not doing the "turn and run" after my front crosses.

We will be at an agility trial in Belvidere, IL this coming weekend. We need QQ's so keep your fingers crossed for us! =)

GRCI - October 3 - 5, 2008

2008-10-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this a little late but it's been crazy busy lately.

First things first, River had his vet appointment on Friday, October 3rd. He weighs 16.6 lbs and is about 12" tall now at the shoulder. He's growing very well and just loves to visit everyone. A very happy boy at the vet's office. Not even a yelp when he got his shots. :)

Then onto our trial in Manhattan. We had a noon start time on Friday since it was Excellent only. FAST class was first, our little warm-up. I didn't really plan well and didn't really care but I would like Ruby to get her XF. We missed the third obstacle in the send portion again. That's four attempts now and we're messing up in the same spot, though I think if it wasn't the far side of a tunnel this time (a different obstacle) she would have gotten it. Maybe I should have taken Dana's distance workshop...

Standard went okay for the most part. Ruby took off way too early for a jump and knocked the bar. Pretty much just blasted through it with her chest. I don't know if it was the lighting in the building or her getting used to the footing in there. Then an off-course up the DW which was my fault because I didn't call her when she was IN the chute. Timing is everything...Jumpers went well but she seemed slow to me. We were clean and she placed 3rd.

Saturday & Sunday I only entered Standard and Jumpers so no more FAST until next month. Standard went pretty well on Saturday until three obstacles from the end. There was a pinwheel with a odd angled jump and an off-course triple facing it. Surprise, surprise, Ruby took that off-course triple backwards. I was thoroughly disgusted to have had a clean run going and blow it like that. She got a pretty tough weave entrance as well. Grrrrr!!!! The carnage continued for the rest of my height class with only one dog qualifying: Darby, my friend Julia's Dalmatian. A lovely run for her! I put Ruby up for auction briefly until after her Jumpers run when she redeemed herself and placed 4th.

Sunday was a rather cold and dreary day. I had to work most of the day and was working Excellent FAST when I should have been walking Excellent Standard. Somehow only walking the course three times seemed to work and she ran it beautifully taking 2nd place behind the Clever Dog. I was very proud of her! :) Jumpers was good for the most part but I didn't help her with a jump at a strange angle and she crashed right through it. I should have pushed on her line a bit more to shape her approach. Weird thing was when I walked the course (heck, I helped build that course) I couldn't figure out why something about that jump was bugging me. Now I know. She also somehow managed to jump the wing of a jump on that course and NOT knock it over. So we missed a QQ by inches. Ugh! 48 MACH points for the weekend though so not too shabby.

So as we stand now, she needs 4 more QQ's and 186 more MACH points to qualify for Nationals. We have 6 more trials before November 30 (this is assuming that we get into all of them - there's only one that I'm not sure about), that means 10, possibly 13 more attempts to get those QQ's and points. I'm not saying that we're going if she does qualify, I'd just like to have the option and be able to say that my little girl did it! :)

We have Rand Park this weekend at the SportZone and I'll update Ruby's blog next week.

Stone City Kennel Club - Sept. 27 - 28, 2008

2008-09-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend and I wasn't "in the mood" to do agility. Nevertheless, Ruby was and I had a hard time getting her to go where I needed her to be. Two off-course jumps on Saturday and a missed weave entrance on Sunday - well not really missed, she entered the wrong side - because she almost took an off-course then as well. I know that I needed a head-check at one point and I need to watch my shoulders/hips more now.

Seriously, what is up with taking the triple backwards? You wonder what goes through the dog's head to make them think that's a good idea. For the most part she was hell-bent on taking every jump in sight; at least she's feeling good, can't say much for myself. We were 0 for 3 going into Standard on Sunday. Really tight, ugly course and we redeemed ourselves by running it clean and for the most part, pretty tight for us. She ended up winning her class because Kris scratched the Clever Dog and Barb scratched Sheffie. Only 18 MACH points though, she ran the course in 49.03 and the judge had SCT as 59. Kris said that the judge wheeled pretty tight and I trust her opinion on that, especially since Clever is running World Team times and Kris has to keep track of all of that. Darn that .03! Probably because I held her DW contact. Oh well...

We still need 234 more MACH points and 4 more QQ's to qualify for Nationals. We'll try again this weekend in Manhattan at the Golden Retriever Club Agility Trial. We'll be doing FAST class as well on Friday. Go Ruby! =)

Puppy Graduation

2008-09-26T12:54:00.001-07:00

What can I say, River is the smartest pup in class and I'm totally not being biased. Okay maybe a just a little. He sure was the cutest! LOL!

Look at those "earrings!"

Working on sit-stays.

Napping with Ruby

River will start in Puppy Agility class in November. He told me that he can't wait! =)

River Puppy!

2008-09-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I've been a bad mom not posting pictures of the little man. Honestly, I've tried. Yesterday Blogger wouldn't let me. Don't know what that was about but anyway, here are some pictures of him from this weekend. He turned 15 weeks old on Sunday.

Come on, rub my belly! :)

I wuf my big sister!

Head shot

River graduates from puppy class on Thursday and he's been doing great. He's a very sweet smart little guy that is very willing to please. I couldn't be happier with him. =)

WAG Agility Trial - Ouch! I think I pulled a muscle...

2008-09-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Ruby's first QQ!!! On Friday she had a great Jumpers run, followed by another great Standard run, taking 4th place in both classes. She went wide on a lot of turns and I need to tighten her up a bit but she also seemed rather slow to me. In reviewing her videos it looks almost like she's over-jumping; clearing the jumps by almost a foot. So with her not jumping efficiently she's eating up time on the clock when she's in the air. Silly girl. I guess it could be worse and she'd be knocking bars, right?

Saturday was a different story. Jumpers was a really nice course and we did well on it but she popped her weaves at the tenth pole. I had my friend Shawna who is a trainer look at the video and she said that nothing in my body position changed to cause the pop. Ruby hasn't popped in a LONG time. The only thing I can figure is the photographer sitting 5 feet away from the end of the weave poles and Ruby heard the 'click.' It happened to some other dogs and, unfortunately, the photographer was only sitting there for the 24" class. Standard was a bit of a disaster because Ruby didn't hold her 2o/2o position on the DW - not even a slight pause - and I couldn't get where I wanted to be for the weave pole entry, so I walked her off the course. My fault, I'm thinking later, as I told her touch on the way up the DW instead of the way down like I usually do. Oh well...still pissed about that photographer...

Alissa = 2
Ruby = 0

Sunday was another good day however as she QQ'd again. A lovely jumpers course and Ruby was a very good girl and she knew it! After her Standard run she barked to let everyone know how great she did and dragged me back to her crate to get her special treats!

42 MACH points for the weekend even with my three-day migraine. Oh yeah and I think I pulled a groin muscle. At least the dog is healthy & fit. =)

I do have to say how amazing it is that I had such a great weekend since there was no negative influence on us. Agility is such a mental game and my poor dog has been suffering because I've been an emotional wreck. No more of that however as we're making a push to qualify for Nationals. We have six trials in as many weekends. Go Ruby Roo!

More Mud & Agility Dog Ruby - USDAA in Wilmot, WI

2008-09-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

The forecast for the weekend was horrible but my friend Julia and I, the agility warriors that we are, headed up to Wilmot, Wisconsin for a two-day USDAA trial. Cream City Canines hosted the trial and as usual they did a great job filling in puddles with mulch to try to keep things safe for the dogs and handlers.

Ruby is still in Starters as this was only her second USDAA trial. Saturday she did great, taking 1st Place in every class (Gamblers, Snooker, Standard & Jumpers) except Pairs Relay. It wasn't our fault however, our relay partner had "a young BC" that couldn't weave (she tried four times), do the teeter or keep bars up. Lovely...so we were eliminated when her dog bailed off the teeter and she put him back on violating the four-paw safety rule.

Sunday the weather was worse, colder, and the rain just never let up. We started with Pairs Relay and we had great relay partners, Judy and her Giant Schnauzer, Rosie. I love when your partner actually tells you what their dogs strengths and/or weaknesses are. She told me that Rosie was having trouble keeping the double up. No problem, we took that half. Though since we were the first Relay Team to compete and they couldn't find the baton, Judy got creative and used a piece of mulch for the hand-off! Regardless we had a great run and took 1st Place also having the best time out of all the other teams.

Standard was next and Ruby took 2nd Place due to our using up about 15 seconds on the table because Ruby didn't want to down in a cold, wet puddle. Can't say I blame her though and she finished the rest of the course quickly, getting a hard weave entry and finishing her AD title.

Then we had Gamblers, Ruby took 1st Place again, and another round of Snooker, where we took 2nd but it was my fault because I forgot to run for the finish which was well away from the final jump of the closing sequence so we JUST made time. Oops! I then decided not to put myself and my dog through any more misery and scratched her from Jumpers. It just wasn't worth risking her getting hurt as the puddles were getting deeper and the rings much more slippery. Julia and I packed up the dogs and headed home at 12:30, pretty early for a USDAA trial.

To completely finish up in Starters we need one more leg of Snooker, Jumpers and Pairs Relay so I will keep her in Starters for those games and move her up to Advanced for Standard and Gamblers. I don't know when we'll be doing USDAA again however. Might not be until next April and it'll probably be indoors. :)

My name is Mud...I mean River

2008-09-08T13:46:00.001-07:00

We had a nice weekend off and spent two days in a row at the Lake Forest Dog Park. River got to experience lots of new sights and smells and of course the lovely mud holes. We went with friends, Libby and Aunt Hallie. We also met up with Christa and her two boys, Bentley and Royce.

This feels interesting...

I'll explore further...

Mud on the belly...ahhhhh......

Uh-oh, mom looks mad...

Crazy Ruby retrieving her tennis ball.

Libby, our local Cubs fan!

And a group roll in something smelly, courtesy of Libby and River.

Next weekend there is USDAA trial in Wilmot, WI where I hope to at least get one Snooker leg with Ruby. LOL! Darn Snooker!

Lots of Stuff!

2008-09-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while because we've been SUPER busy! We had a three day trial in McCook two weekends ago. Ruby did pretty well just knocking some bars in Jumpers on Friday and I wasn't crazy about the Standard course so I didn't handle it well. Saturday she took 2nd place in Jumpers and we almost QQ *sigh* but I didn't help her with the weave entry in Standard class and that's where we blew it. Otherwise she had a very nice run. On Sunday again she knocked a bar in Jumpers, don't know why. She took off way too late for the jump which was strange for her but the rest of the run was nice. Standard was a mess again as my head just wasn't in it and I didn't give her a clear signal where we were going so she missed the weave entry. Oh well, something to work on, the mental game and helping her with her weave entries.

Tuesday night after class we left for Ann Braue's in Eau Claire, WI. River had Puppy Agility Camp for two days and he was phenomenal. I am very impressed with how smart he is and I have clicker training to thank for that. He was doing great with the tugging but at one point bit his tongue and wouldn't tug much at Ann's after that though he was still excited to play with me so I let him tug the sleeves on my sweatshirt. I will have to transfer that to a toy, though he was fine playing tug with me at home and at my parents. After doing the plunk and feed a few times he is already offering a 2o/2o position on the travel board. He's also a very natural jumper and I think after a few sessions of find the jump standards he will be great at that as well.

On Friday we spent the day at my parents; I did some fishing with my dad (caught two nice bass) and then we took the dogs to the lake. This was River's first time near a body of water and he was a little nervous but very curious when he saw how excited his big sister got and she jumped right in. He went out on his own swimming about 3 or 4 feet. He's a natural swimmer too. None of the panicked dog paddle here. :) He then followed me out about 6 feet and swam very well all on his own.

Unfortunately, Ruby was a little too tired for Dock Diving the next day and her best jump of the day was only 9' 4" So my fault that she was swimming so much the day before though my goal was just to get River in the water on his own and for Ruby to have just a little fun. I think she also really wore herself out at my parents. She really loves it there and would run full out for hours and get the excited zoomies too. River was also very excited to meet new people at the Dock Diving event and none of the noise bothered him in the slightest.

Sunday and Monday we had an agility trial in Manhattan. We stayed at my sister's house and dog & cat sat for her and her husband. Ruby had two very nice runs on Sunday. In Standard though I got a tiny bit behind her and she cut in front of me to take an off course jump instead of going out to the chute as I told her. I held my position and as she came around the jump she had this look on her face like, "oh, oops! That's what you meant." And she went right into the chute. The rest of the run was beautiful though it made me a little down as I'm getting tired of the "almost" runs. Her Jumpers run was also very nice but she knocked a bar though it wasn't something I did. Just a strange angle to the jump and she barely nicked it with her back toes.

On Monday she had a lovely run in Standard, winning her class and earning 16 MACH points. Only three 24" dogs qualified and she was 5 seconds faster than the 2nd place dog. I was very happy with her. Her Jumpers run was a bit pokey from the tunnel to the weaves as it was very hot and Jumpers was outside but she picked it up a little after that. She knocked a bar though I think it was because I cued her over the jump for a front cross. It was kind of strange to me because I set up that sequence when I got home and it didn't affect her at all. The most she did was rub the bar hard once but it didn't come down. Maybe she also didn't take the jump at the right distance and I probably won't know because I didn't have anyone tape our runs on Monday. It would have also been nice to have that first place Standard run on tape. :( Oh well.

Next weekend we are off and IF we get in, we'll be doing USDAA up in Wilmot, WI on the 13th and 14th. I'll post some pictures soon but in the meantime, there's some new video of Ruby and River on my YouTube account http://www.youtube.com/user/ruby1liz

Libby and Aunt Hallie Visit

2008-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

No agility this weekend, no dock diving, nothing...kinda boring but I got caught up on most of my yard work. A little trip to Home Depot on Saturday and I cleaned out my gutters and picked up most of the sticks in the yard. Yawn!

Ruby couldn't wait for Sunday to come. I told her Libby and Aunt Hallie were coming for a visit. She checked the door every two minutes. FINALLY! They arrived!

River was also very excited. This was the first time he'd met Miss Libby and Aunt Hallie. He's never had someone come for a visit. He was so cute trying to hang with the big kids.

River, Ruby and Libby

River really thinks he's the ladies man! I got some really cute shots of the girls being silly and posing.

Libby and Ruby - BFF!

River and Ruby

After playing for hours, running around and wrestling, Hallie and Libby went home. My kids took a much needed nap.

So tired...

I'm glad we had that weekend of "nothing" as the next two weeks will be a whirlwind of activity. Next weekend we have a three-day agility trial in McCook, then we leave Tuesday night for Wisconsin. I have River in Ann Braue's Puppy Workshop for two days and we'll be staying with my parents up in Spooner. The following weekend Ruby has dock diving in Rockford and two days of agility in Manhattan. More pictures and updates to come.

Agility Ability Trial - Plano, IL

2008-08-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

I had heard some bad things about the Plano trial site but I decided to check it out for myself. Saturday morning I packed up Ruby & River and headed out to the trial. It started off chilly with brief periods of rain & drizzle. It had stopped by the time we ran our first class - Jumpers - and Ruby did very well taking 2nd place.

Our Standard run didn't go so well however. Miss Ruby freaked herself out before our run as we were waiting on line. A tarp blew up on someones crate scaring her and I couldn't get her back and focused before our run. I got a stress yawn at the start line and a LOT of sniffing, so I had to cheer lead around the course and tell her to keep her head up. When she kept moving it didn't look like such a bad run but she missed her weave entry and popped at the tenth pole, a clear indicator to me that she was stressing. She was also very slow and lope-y.

River did great at the trial, meeting new people and a few dogs. He is even learning to be quiet in his crate. Yea!

On Sunday I took Ruby near the Standard ring to get her over her "issues" and she was fine. Our Jumpers run went great and she took 1st place. I was surprised because it felt very slow and it was, she was just faster than the other dogs somehow. Standard AGAIN didn't go so well but this time it was all me. I changed my plan of action and I shouldn't have; should have stuck to my original plan instead of being a lemming and doing what everyone else was doing. Anyway, I got lost and sent her over the wrong jump. Once I got her back the rest of her run was nice and she was working and happy, except I pulled off the weaves a little too soon and she popped at the 11th pole. Overall not a bad weekend and Ruby managed to get herself 23 MACH points.

Agility is also mental game and sometimes when your ego gets a little shove to the ground, you need to pick yourself up and just get over it. Something I really need to learn to do, both for myself and my dog. Ruby is such a great, sweet dog and is very sensitive to my moods. Most of the time when I'm running her in agility I can control things or hide how I'm feeling from her and concentrate on the job at hand. Sometimes I can't or it comes out in other ways like I get lost on course. Obviously not her fault at all. Poor Ruby, she needs a new handler. Though I still need her to cuddle with and for hugs and kisses when I'm feeling blue. :)

Playing tug with mom.

Sweet boy!

Even though he's just a silly little puppy right now and is mostly just into biting things and playing (and eating and sleeping and pooping and peeing), I have a feeling that River will be just as sweet as Ruby in that regard.

River

2008-08-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

His full registered name is Cirtap's Prins L-D River van Berk. The little man is doing very well and crate training has been going great. He loves his big sister Ruby. She's been wonderful with him and VERY patient. She's such a great dog!

Yesterday we went to Wet Nose in St. Charles to pick up River's food that they special ordered for me. Everyone loves him there and he gets tons love and treats. I figured since I was there I'd use their scale to weigh River and see how he was growing. He now weighs 7.8 lbs or 3.5 kg. He's growing very quickly and last week he weighed in at 3 kg or 6.61 lbs. Did I mention that he was also the biggest puppy in the litter? Closely followed by the (not-so) little girl - she was 2.95 kg last week!

River has decided that Cougar's toys are fair game. That's a Kitty Kong hanging out of his mouth!

Kennel Cirtap's - Orby, Sweden

2008-08-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

My search for the perfect Kooiker puppy took me to Kennel Cirtap's in Orby, Sweden and the home of Birgitta and Thomas Lindblad. Kooikerhondje (pronounced koy-ker-hond-ja) or Dutch Decoy Dog are part of the AKC FSS (Foundation Stock Services) program and are in the Sporting Group. They are considered a spaniel-type dog, particularly used for duck hunting and tolling, and were approved in January to compete in AKC companion events.

Birgitta picked me up at the Gothenberg-Landvetter Airpot in Sweden on Monday July 28th following a brief layover at Heathrow. After months of correspondence it was great to finally meet her in person. Her husband Thomas was wonderful as well; I've never met nicer people. :) They put me up in this cute little cabin on their property.

Except for the first day, which was stormy, the weather was beautiful but warm. I took the adult dogs on daily walks in the forest. It was quiet and serene, the rocky forest floor covered in moss, you almost expected to see a pack of wolves appear as dusk fell.

The pictures don't do it justice. I also saw some interesting wildlife. Huge hare almost as as big as a border collie, very large crow/raven type birds and these really cool slugs.

They're about 4 inches long and keep the forest floor clean. I took this picture with the macro function on my camera. Pretty cool, eh?

Birgitta and I went shopping on Friday in Boras. It's the textile capital of Sweden. We also saw the eclipse, it was pretty cool. There is a lot of controversy in the city about a 9 meter tall statue depicting Pinocchio by artist Jim Dine.

Now on to the important stuff...PUPPIES!!!

Birgitta and Thomas with all the pups. Note: you can't see River because he's giving her a kiss!

This is my boy! Ain't he just the cutest thing in the world??? And Ruby even likes him! No surprise there though. She's going to be a great big sister and show the kid the ropes.

This is Kelly, Cirtap's J-G Prinses Leopoldina, River's dam. She's a Nordic Champion meaning she's won & earned her Championship in at least three different countries. She's a very sweet, yet reserved bitch until she gets to know you, correct for a Kooiker Dog. She will also play fetch for hours unless you stop her!

This is Diko, Diko Iriot V.D. Cluster, River's sire. A very handsome dog with good bone and temperament. He comes from very good lines.

I was lucky enough to get to Sweden on Day 50 for the pups. Day 49 is actually the ideal day to do the Puppy Aptitude Test but we figured that one day later wouldn't hurt so much. Since I was the "stranger" I performed the testing and Birgitta got the whole thing on video. River and his brother, Aiko scored the best for a working dog, also having the best scores overall by the breeder as far as conformation. Now I had to make a choice...

Initially when Birgitta sent me the pictures of the newborn pups I already knew which one I wanted. Strange that after spending almost a whole week with the entire litter and getting to know each of them very well, it was still the same pup. The hardest thing was saying no to the others as they were all wonderful in their own way. Marvin grew on me as his personality developed and the shy one, Linux, had even taken on a special relationship with me. I became one he went to if he got scared. And they all changed so much in those few days. I think it's really important to get your pup between 7 and 8 weeks to get that socialization started and develop a bond with them, otherwise the breeder has to do that and if she has a large litter...not an easy thing for her to do. In the end, Birgitta said it's something you decide with your heart and Pup #2 became River.

Kelly went home on Tuesday evening (July 29th) so Birgitta and I drove her back to Katarina Blod's home. Check out these built in kennels; I thought they were pretty cool.

You can take the divider panel out too if you have a big dog or you want your dogs together. And just in case you're in a rear end collision, they also open on the inside.

River, Keela and Marvin destroy the wild flowers.

Aiko, Pup #1, finds his own flowers to eat.

Linux, Pup #4, sleeping in the shade.

Keela, the little girl, Pup #3

Marvin, Pup #5

River: "I have no idea what flowers you're talking about!"

On Sunday, August 3rd, River and I made our long trip back to the states. Here he is at the airport.

River is settling in nicely and we'll have more pictures and updates soon. This weekend Ruby has an agility trial in Plano, IL and she can't wait to get out there and play again.

GABOC & Cream City - July 19 & 20

2008-07-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Ruby had a very nice weekend despite all the rain. Her mom, on the other hand, got a lovely cold & sinus infection.

We had a Sanction A Match at Gary & Cindy's place on Saturday in the pouring rain -which may have contributed to my cold - for the Glenbard All Breed Obedience Club. I think they had enough dogs come to the line to get approved to hold AKC agility trials (yea!) now they have six months to get that worked out and hopefully host their first trial. They think that Naperville will be their trial site. :)

On Sunday we drove to Wilmot, WI for a day of agility with Cream City Canines. Despite the flooding that occurred in the rings on Saturday due to all the rain, the conditions weren't too bad and the club did a great job of filling in the mud holes with mulch and shavings. Ruby's Standard run was crazy but we were one of only three Excellent B 24" dogs that qualified on this course. Bars were dropping everywhere and there was a lot of potential for off-courses. Here is her run in the mud:

She was a very good girl, took 3rd place for her first MX leg and her jumpers run wasn't so bad either. She just dropped a bar turning for the finish and then I was VERY late on a front cross because suddenly Alissa was there with her camera and I was headed right for her. It kind of freaked me out and I'm sure the cold medicine made my depth perception a little off. Oh well, we had NQ'd by that point but she was a very good girl and tried her hardest. So we missed that first QQ by a dropped bar. Maybe Plano will be kind to us and I hear they pass out QQ pins! :)

Ruby will get a two week break from agility as I am leaving for Sweden to pick up her new little brother next Sunday. I'll be back on August 3rd with tons of pictures of the new pup. I'm really excited about seeing another country and bringing home this adorable little guy.

WAG Agility Trial - July 11th - 13th

2008-07-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

We had some beautiful courses this weekend and very nice judges. :) I'd have to say that ALL of the Standard courses were fast and fun. The Jumpers courses this weekend were a little tricky though. I can see that the judges are going to make us work for those Q's now, especially if you have a fast dog.

On Friday Ruby qualified in Jumpers for her 6th MXJ leg, earning 9 Mach points and also took 2nd place in Standard earning her 2nd AX leg. So we had a "mock" Double Q, not a MACH Double Q. LOL!

Saturday's Jumpers course was a bunch of messy grids and 90 degree angles. Not easy. We NQ'd but it was because I couldn't get where I needed to be and not Ruby's fault at all. She tried but didn't know what I wanted. Quite a few people got lost on that course. The Standard course on Saturday was beautiful and Ruby won her class to finish her AX title.

Sunday's Jumpers course was tricky as well and if I had handled it differently it was definitely doable. I didn't think out our plan of attack very well and it was my fault that we got into trouble at the weave poles. I think I either blocked her entry or over-rotated and she wasn't sure where she was supposed to go. It was all down hill from there...The Standard course was another very nice course and Ruby ran it wonderfully except she missed her weave entry, probably my fault again. Other than that little bobble we had a very nice run and a couple people came up to me and told me how nice our run was. I guess even the NQ's can look good! :)

Next weekend we have one day of trialing up in Wilmot, WI on Sunday and I hope to get at least one leg of something up there though a Double Q would be nice. Then Ruby gets two weeks off as I'm leaving for Sweden to pick up her little brother. Shhh!!!! I haven't told her yet. :)

July 6th - Stone City KC Agility Trial

2008-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

A warm Sunday morning and a beautiful place to trial. It was a little slope-y (is that a word?) but Ruby handled the terrain beautifully. We ran Open FAST class first and she took 3rd place to finish her title.

Jumpers with Weaves was next. It was a wonderful, fun, fast course and she took 3rd place. We had a little problem with the timer however; it didn't stop when she crossed the finish jump so the man timing hit it manually when he realized it didn't stop. Unfortunately, I think we got robbed of 2nd place, which would have meant multipliers for MACH points. I know we were faster than the fluffy terv that took 2nd and we had a time only 4 tenths of a second behind them. How fast do you think Ruby ran the course? I think it was 30 seconds flat! :)

Standard was a funny mess, first I think I got her out too early and then Steve was taping our run downwind of us. She smelled him and came flying over the aframe to go say "hi." Oh well, two out of three ain't bad! :)

July 4th & 5th - Chicagoland DockDogs

2008-07-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Dock Dogs everyone! FINALLY!!! Ruby was so excited that her first jump was her personal best of 12' 11''. She finished both her Novice and Junior Regional Jumper titles. She had two first place Novice jumps and one 4th place Junior jump. I believe she made the Novice Finals but we were doing agility on Sunday and we couldn't make it up there in time.

A very sad thing happened though, Ruby's good friend Bindi got attacked by a lab. The lab got away from it's owner and bit her in both back legs and her beautiful tail. She suffered some bruising and a puncture wound. She did manage to pull off two Junior qualifying jumps of 12' 3" and 10' 6" We are very proud of her and wish her a speedy recovery. Bindi's aunt is the famous Pico, who won the Dock Dogs World Championships last year. I am sure she will follow in Pico's footsteps.

Cudahy Trial - June 21 & 22

2008-06-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well, there was some conflicts, some confrontations and some resolve but I really wish I could just have fun running my dog without all the B.S. We did get to hang out with Kris and all her pups on Saturday and we had a good time. Thanks Kris! We also got to know some acquaintances a little better :) and make some new friends!

Saturday was interesting, I wasn't really mentally there for Ruby in our Standard run and sent her up the dogwalk by accident, then she popped her weaves and got a little crazy. I got her back and focused and the rest of her run was very nice. She had very nice contacts on her dogwalk and Alissa got a great picture of her on the teeter and going through the tire jump. Our Jumpers run was nice though I felt like I was running really far ahead of her and with the exception of her popping the weaves again (though this time between 10 & 11) it was a very nice run. After the trial we went home and she was even popping the weaves in the yard which is not like her so I'm trying to get her in for an adjustment with Dr. Mayer to see if that helps.

Sunday was a little better though we've been having problems with our start line. Luckily, she broke before I got a lead out and I was able to reset her in Standard. She ran very well though it felt awkward to me and we FINALLY got an Excellent Standard leg. She took 2nd place and I am very happy. In Jumpers she broke her start line again. This time I was too far away to reset her and didn't get the lead out that I wanted. Because of that, I wasn't where I needed to be for the next front cross and caused her to miss a jump. We continued and she nailed her weave entry but popped again at 11 - something is amiss with Miss Ruby - the ending was a serpentine and she read it beautifully, so I was happy with that.

Congrats to Tammy & Lexi and Wendy & Jack for their beautiful Jumpers runs on Sunday! Way to go girls! :)

Sunday, June 15th

2008-06-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

The second day of the Car-Dun-Al trial was pretty scary. We had a lightning storm come up as we were walking the course and we were ordered to go inside or take cover. After it blew over the grass was pretty wet and by the time Ruby and I ran, the Jumpers course was pretty slippery. She was a very good girl though and kept all the bars up earning her 4th MXJ leg and 9 MACH points. I couldn't be happier with her progress after her horrible set back. Here's the video:

She wasn't so good in her Standard class later however. I had trouble with her in that ring all weekend with her focusing on something at or around the exit gate. She stopped right in front of the first jump and ignored me to miss the second obstacle altogether. I stopped, called her to me, picked her up and excused us from the ring. I have no idea what had gotten into her though we had a long wait at the entrance when the wind came up and they had to reset and sandbag a few jumps. Ruby doesn't have much patience, especially when I run out of cheese unexpectedly.

Cindy and Madison also had a very nice qualifying run in Standard. Only two more to go you guys! Good job!

After the trial we left for Romeoville to visit with my sister Toni and cousin Sable.

Sable and Ruby

"Seriously, why are we sitting here getting our picture taken? There was no mention of cookies!"

"Oh, wait! Sable??? Did you see that!?!?!?"

"It's a B. I. R. D.!"

"Cool!!!"

Saturday, June 14th

2008-06-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

Ruby's first full trial back was this weekend at the Car-Dun-Al Agility Trial in Belvidere, IL. She had two very nice runs on Saturday but dropped a bar in each class. Overall she was a very good girl.

Madison at the trial

Cindy and Madison had two very nice runs on Saturday with a qualifying run in Jumpers. After the trial, we took Ruby and Zoey over to play with Jake.

Jake, the man.

Ruby, Jake and Zoey played for a bit, but Ruby mostly wanted to roll in the grass and obsess over the gnats landing on her.

Silly Ruby and Zoey

June 7th & 8th Weekend

2008-06-09T09:49:00.001-07:00

On Saturday Ruby got all of her sutures and staples out and the vet said she looked great. We were cleared to compete at the Hanover Park trial on Sunday.

Ruby did very well but I can't say much for myself. I got lost in Jumpers and messed her up. There was also a tough downhill jump into the weaves that most of the dogs missed. Standard went much better and we just had one refusal going into a tunnel which I think was also my fault as I let her get too far ahead of me and she wasn't sure where she was going.

All in all a nice couple of runs and everyone thought she looked great for having so much time off. Cindy and Madison also had two very nice runs and took 4th place in Excellent Standard.

Ruby then had her best friend Libby over and chaos & hilarity ensued! Please see the previous post. :)

The Party Crashers

2008-06-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

"Hey Roo?"

"What up Libs?"

"I think they're having a picnic over there at your neighbors."

"Where?"

"Over there."

"Yeah, so..."

"Well, we might be able to beg some brats or hotdogs. Worst case scenario scavenge under the picnic tables or lick some kids faces."

"Cool."

"You ready?"

"Let's do this."

Ruby & The Move

2008-06-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Ruby is just living the life, eh? Sometimes she's so human it freaks me out.

Ruby was to have her staples removed on May 28th but as I expected, she had to undergo another brief surgery to stitch her back up. The black roundish scab came off and left a big hole in her side that needed to be closed in order for her to heal more quickly. The other problem was that the first vet gave her the wrong size Elizabethan Collar. It was only 15" and she needed a 20" collar to keep her from licking the sutures. This was our last day in the apartment - notice the bigger cone.

Here's a close up of her new stitches:

I also had my sister Toni order a BiteNot collar for me. Here she is modeling the 5" canine version in her new backyard:

I HIGHLY recommend these if you have a long-necked dog (not to be confused with long-necked bottles :)) or have a dog that is persistant and can get an Elizabethan collar off. It's amazing and she doesn't run into things either, like her mom for example. It works like a whiplash brace for humans so she can't turn her head. Here's a better shot of the side:

The move to South Elgin from Chicago on Friday went as well as can be expected. The closing went smoothly until the checks needed to be cut, then the check printer went out. The movers got lost so poor Ruby & Cougar were left in the city until 7pm. Enough about my stuff though; this is Ruby's blog!

On Saturday Christa brought the boys over after the Manhattan agility trial and Ruby couldn't have been happier seeing her boyfriend Bentley!

Sorry about the empty boxes in the background but, Hey! We just moved! :) Here are the three pups together:

And cute little Royce offering a down for a cookie:

With any luck, since I seem to have none lately, Ruby will get her stiches and remaining staples out on Saturday. So yes we will most likely miss yet another trial - Hanover Park - or at the very least one day of it. The sad thing is that it's the closest trial to our new place, approx. 18 minutes away. Can't beat that! Everyone PLEASE keep your fingers crossed that they take the stitches out on Saturday as Ruby is chomping at the bit, so to speak and so am I!

Little Update

2008-05-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

Someone is very itchy right now. When I got out of the shower this morning Ruby was hiding in bed looking very guilty. She had her e-collar on so I couldn't figure out what she did at first. Well...she can reach the wound with her back foot and had been scratching it. She managed to pull out one of her staples. It's not one that I'm worried about as there is another staple that looks like it's about to fall out too. She's all red today though because of her scratching.

If you look at the picture below you can see a dime-sized black spot. I'm fairly certain that black skin is dead and will eventually fall off like a scab. Yeah, I know, GROSS!!! There isn't any hair growing there either and her hair is coming back in everywhere else. Anyway the loose staple is also on some of the black skin but it's on the edges where the vet brought the laceration together. I'm sure this dead stuff will fall off too. I don't even want to think about how disgusting that is. Kind of reminds me of that Sex in the City episode where Miranda's baby's umbilical cord falls off and the cat is playing with it! I wouldn't put it past Cougar...

A Little Better

2008-05-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Ruby is at work with me again today. You'd never guess something horrible happened to her looking at this picture.

The drain tube has been out for two days now and everything seems to be healing well. The bruising has almost disappeared. I've been putting Traumeel gel on the bruised parts as well as giving the pills to her orally twice a day. Her spirits are up and she's typically been her normal happy self, at least with people, though she has been sleeping a lot. She's only been around two other dogs since the incident, one being her BFF Libby and it was like nothing had happened. Ruby saw Shenille at the office for the first time today and only seemed a little strange when Shenille tried to smell her side as she approached her a bit quickly.

The red squarish hole is from the drain tube. The vet said that it would just close up on it's own, though it looks like it could use a stitch or two. She has also been jumping into the back of the car on her own so it must not be bothering her that much. As Polly said, it's amazing how quickly these dogs recover!

Quick Update

2008-05-20T06:51:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone - Thank you for all your concerned emails and well wishes for a speedy recovery for Ruby. We really appreciate it. The vet took the drain tube out last night and said that she is healing very nicely. The staples will come out on the 28th. Of course she had lots of kisses for the vet! :) In the meantime I have contacted the dark haired woman that owns two Ridgebacks and am packing for our move.

Ruby didn't come to work with me today as her dad (my ex-husband) decided that he would step up to the plate and take care of her for me today. He had wanted to see her before she and I moved out of the city and he just felt horrible when he heard what happened. She was very excited to see her dad and explore her old home. Thanks Al!

I spoke with Bob Olson about her accident and he said that he could offer me a partial refund for my entry fees for the Smack-Dab trial. One of the great things about dog people, they totally understand and always offer to help if you need it. :)

A Random Act of Violence

2008-05-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

As most of my closest friends know, Ruby was attacked this past Friday evening at the Montrose Dog Beach. We were meeting Ruby's BFF Libby and her mom Hallie there after work on Friday night. Due to Cubs game traffic we were both late getting to the beach and I beat Hallie there by about ten minutes. I was going to wait in the car until Hallie got there but Ruby was squawking in her crate because she could smell the lake so I decided to get her out and just wait near the entrance for them.

She ran around me in big circles barking and wanting to play and I can't figure out why but I had this weird uncomfortable feeling. I tried to shake it off and told her to go to the bathroom and she did. As I was getting a poop bag out of my purse she took off across the beach at high speed to go run in the water. I didn't really think anything of it as she does it all the time because she loves to swim in the lake. As I reached down to pick up her poop I saw her pass a huge Rhodesian Ridgeback on her way to the water. He lunged at her and I heard her yelp. She immediately ran over to a woman with a schnauzer who was standing nearby and the lady patted her side and told her it was okay. Meanwhile the Ridgeback had put his ears back, his tail went between his legs and he went to find his owner.

I called Ruby to me as I don't like her that far away from me unsupervised but she wouldn't come. I called her a couple more times and finally she came running to me but as she approached I could tell something was wrong. I called her to my side and I saw a huge flap of skin torn from her side. I immediately picked her up as I didn't want her getting any sand in the wound and walked over to the woman with the Ridgeback. Turns out that she has two, one was on leash & the the other was the one that bite Ruby. I told her that her dog just bite my dog and she replied "That isn't like him." Then she offered to drive me to the vet in her Dodge Durango. I wasn't about to get in a truck with her two dogs and my injured dog so I told her that she had done enough and carried Ruby out of the beach.

At that point Hallie had arrived (thank GOD!), quickly assessed the situation and said, "We're going to the vet right now, give me your keys, I'll drive." Of course we were stuck in some residual Cubs traffic and typically bad Friday night traffic but managed to get to Jewell Animal Hospital fairly quickly. It was the closest vet nearby and they took her in immediately and gave her a shot for pain. The vet had to take care of his other patients first but concentrated on Ruby as soon as he could. I think he did a great job as he had to put her under to clean the wound, insert a drain tube and staple her together. He then gave her another shot to get her back up and she was wobbly but on her feet fairly quickly.

She was still really out of it but $506 and 2 1/2 hours later we loaded Libby back in my car, Hallie drove back to the beach to get her car while I held Ruby on my lap. Hallie got in her car with Libby and I put Ruby in her crate in the back of my car. She cried the whole way home even though I drove carefully & tried not to hit any potholes.

Sorry about the quality of this picture. It was right after I got her home and her eyes where still really dilated from the anesthesia so I didn't want to use the flash. She cried all night Friday night so neither of us got much sleep.

Here's a close-up of the wound on Saturday morning. 18 staples and a drain tube. Lovely.

Saturday afternoon Ruby's appetite returned and she was moving around a little better. I decided to take a quick shower and someone decided that her lidocaine patches were yummy.

Here's the naughty girl wearing her stylish Elizabethan collar:

And a close up of her wound. You can really see the bruising here:

She's on an antibiotic and two pain meds, Rimadyl and Tramadol. She gets her drain tube out this evening and the staples will come out in another 7 to 11 days. Needless to say we will also be missing the Smack-Dab trial in addition to missing Plano and Dock Diving this past weekend.

I'd like to thank everyone who heard about what happened to Ruby for the concerned phone calls and text messages. It really means a lot to us. And especially thanks to Hallie for being there for me. :)

My Beautiful Girl

2008-05-12T11:28:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of Ruby hanging at the office with me last Thursday. She wasn't supposed to come to the office with me but when I went to drop her off at daycare on the way into work I was informed by the staff that they were not accepting dogs for daycare due to a kennel cough outbreak in Chicago. (!!!) Sure would have been nice to have gotten an email or phone call from them before hand. Oh well.

Northwest Agility Trial Weekend

2008-05-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a long weekend! There were some ups and downs but it ended well.

Friday was a VERY long day. Ruby and I NQ'd in Standard but had a very nice run. Jumpers was a little tricky and there were some pitfalls that I didn't see so we ended up with 3 off-courses. Yikes! FAST was nice but I knew that we wouldn't get the tough send portion. So we were 0 for 3 on Friday.

Saturday was a little better. We had a little problem in Standard with missing our a-frame contact and some problems on the table (naughty girl didn't want to stay) but I think we've got them worked out. She had a beautiful run in Jumpers taking 4th place and earning 11 MACH points.

On Sunday our Standard run was a train wreck. Ruby was feeling a little full of herself and didn't hold her start line. She got her weave entry only to pop between the 3rd and 4th pole. I put her in to redo them and she popped at ten to blow me off and run into the wrong side of the tunnel. I put her in the correct side to continue our run and told myself that if she didn't hold her dog walk contact I was going to pull her. She held it however and we finished the remainder of the course.

Ruby didn't get any treats for her horrible behavior and we had a long talk back at her crate. She was much better in Jumpers and qualified again earning 8 MACH points. At this rate I think we'll have our MXJ before we get our AX. *sigh*

I had another interesting thing happen. The judges took a very long time to get the ribbons done, so Cindy and I went to get something to eat and then came back to continue our long wait. She took Madison outside to potty and I went out to find her. What do I see when I walk out the door but a handsome little Kooiker puppy! Rennen - which means 'smooth running' in Swedish - just turned a year old. His owner Helen and I talked at length about him and it turns out that the breeder in Sweden that I've been talking to is very close friends with Rennen's breeder. Helen and I exchanged contact information and she is very excited that I may be getting a Kooiker puppy.

And FINALLY a BIG congratulations to Cindy and Madison for their first Double Q on Sunday. Great job you guys!

Ruby's New Title

2008-04-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

Ruby finished her Rally Advanced title this past weekend at Rand Park Dog Training Club's Obedience & Rally Trial in Melrose Park, IL on Saturday, April 26th. She took 3rd place under judge Arlene King.

I have to say that I am very proud of her and she was a very good girl. The thing about Ruby is that not only is she a smart and beautiful dog but she is also biddable and very sweet. She makes new friends wherever she goes and people fall in love with her wonderful personality. I am a very lucky person to own such a wonderful dog and to share my life with her.

Here is a picture of my very tired girl on Sunday afternoon. She had quite the fun-filled day: a two-hour playdate with her best friend Libby, some shopping for treats at a couple doggie boutiques in the city and a bath at Soggy Paws. I love how cute she looks when she sleeps. :)

USDAA

2008-04-14T08:13:00.001-07:00

I have decided to take over the blog from Ruby for a bit. She's been getting crumbs in my keyboard and there's drool on the computer screen. Apparently she's been surfing for treats. :)

I'd have to say that with the exception of the VERY long day on Saturday, our first USDAA experience was great. Ruby was a very good girl and she had 5 qualifying runs out of 8. Our first run on Saturday - Jumpers - was very nice but Ruby knocked two bars getting used to the higher jumps and different footing. We also ran Snooker, Standard and Gamblers, ending up with a third place in Gamblers and non-qualifying runs in Snooker and Standard due to some little bobbles(someone suddenly needs to be babysat on the table - the naughty girl).

Sunday was a lot better. We qualified again in Gamblers, took third place in Standard and qualified in Pairs Relay with Jake & Norm. We also qualified in Jumpers at the end of the day which - thank God - was much shorter than Saturday! :) You can see two of our runs on my friend Shawna's YouTube account http://www.youtube.com/user/1box1bc

It was great seeing everyone: Barb & Sheff - back after a short sabbatical :), Whitney & Dylan, Katie & Fergus, Shawna & Crush, Polly & Rainey, Steve & Meeker, Mary with Zane & Scout and Dana with Given & Bang! I think we all had a great time & even though we humans were exhausted the dogs all did very well. :)

I hope to post some more pictures soon.

Fox Valley Agility Trial

2008-03-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

I was a very good girl this weekend! I got my AXJ title and took 2nd place on Saturday. Then on Sunday I had my first run in Jumpers Excellent B. I took 4th place and earned my first MXJ leg. I also earned 9 MACH points. The course was a lot of fun! My mom is very happy with me and I got lots of hugs and treats! :)

Unfortunately I wasn't holding my contacts in Standard class on the DogWalk and on Sunday my mom got whistled off by the judge for training in the ring. I thought the whistle meant go to the table so I did, but then my mom said, "Go get your leash" and we walked out of the ring. I was sad because I wanted to run. I also didn't get any cookies for that. :(

My mom took a couple pictures of my new friend Vinnie. He's a 4 month old vizsla. His mom and dad are Pam and Mike. They have a booth at the agility trials and my mom sometimes buys t-shirts from them. His big sisters are Mo and Reggie. They're vizslas too!

Doesn't he have a nice 'down?' He's very focused and will do anything for a cookie, like most of us vizslas. :)

Next weekend I have my very first USDAA trial and all my friends will be there. Fergus, Dylan, Given, Zane and Crush. Good luck to everyone and I'll let you know how we do.

Office Mates

2008-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings! I thought on this cold, overcast day I'd share some pictures of the other pups that come into work and hang out with me.

This is me with Shenille posing in Tom's office. She's a 7 year old Doberman Pinscher. We like to chase each other around the office and wrestle on the Oriental rugs but she's a lot bigger than I am!

This is Fellini. He's owned by my mom's bosses' son but Jenna takes care of him. He's a 1 year old French Bulldog. My mom says he's a little stubborn. I haven't met him yet because he's only come to the office once. He peed on my bed and in Larry's office. Larry was really mad!

He looks a little pissed in that one picture! LOL! :)

Weekend!

2008-03-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Such a fun weekend I just had! My mom was home for Good Friday so I got to play in the snow. Then on Saturday I went to support my BFF Libby in a hunt test. My mom got to watch Libby and her mom Hallie run in the field. I had to stay in the car because I wasn't entered in the hunt test but we got to play before her brace went out. Libby did very well and found three birds. She passed to finish her Junior Hunter title.

This is Libby posing with her ribbon. She told me she only did it for the treats! Can't say I blame her. :)

Congratulations to Libby and Hallie! We're very proud of you! And thanks to Aunt Hallie for the yummy Easter cookies.

Sunday was fun for me too. I did a CPE trial - it's agility with lots of games - my mom told me that I was a very good girl. I took 1st place in three classes and 2nd in another. Next weekend is more agility but it's AKC in Fox Valley. Wish us luck!

Winter Blahs

2008-02-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Is it ever going to get warm so I can go dock diving? *sigh*

My mom says this weekend there is a big agility trial in Crystal Lake. All of my friends will be there: Madison, Fergus and I think Dylan too. Madison is going down to Dana's place in Wilmington to see Dr. Teresa today. Madison hasn't been moving around so well and she needs to get "adjusted." I don't know what that means but I like seeing Dr. Dan or Dr. Julie. I feel all loose when they're done and they get lots of kisses. Plus when I see Dr. Julie I get to do the underwater treadmill and swim for a few minutes. It's fun and I get lots of treats!

This is a picture of Madison. Isn't she pretty?

This is a picture of her little sister, Zoey. Zoey is training for agility and flyball. She's pretty cute, huh?

Zoey always tries to herd me when she sees me. I wish she'd just run with me instead of biting my back legs. Her teeth are sharp! Here's another picture of Zoey with her hedgehog.

Zoey gets to go to the trial tomorrow morning, get "measured" and check everything out. If I'm lucky my mom will bring me to work with her tomorrow. More later and I'll let everyone know how my friends do this weekend.

Update: Poor Madison didn't get to do the trial. She was still very sore but will be back in action very soon. I was a very good girl and had two beautiful runs on Saturday but knocked a bar in Jumpers and popped my weave poles in Standard. On Sunday I took 3rd place in Jumpers but my mom wasn't a very good handler in Standard class. Oops! I went to see Dr. Julie on the following Wednesday and it turns out that my pelvis was out. I am good to go after my adjustment.

Hi Everyone!

2008-02-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

My name is Ruby, I'm a vizsla & I just turned three last November. I live in Chicago with my mom and my brother, Cougar. I do agility, flyball, dock diving and Rally Obedience. I think I love dock diving the best. I bark a lot to let everyone know that I'm there. My mom says I have the biggest mouth. I just earned my Novice Big Air Title at Rosemont last month. My mom says that I'm also the #1 Nationally ranked vizsla in dock diving. That really doesn't mean much though - there's only three of us! :)

I also LOVE food. It's the best! My mom feeds me raw food. She says it's very good for me and that's why my coat is so shiny.

This past weekend my mom and I went to Kewanee, IL for an AKC agility trial. It wasn't like I remembered last year. It was really hard to run and jump and I didn't really want to do my weaves. My mom says I was good though and that my contacts were very nice. I got 1st place on Saturday and 2nd place on Sunday in Open Standard to finish my title. Whew! It was hard to run in that stuff. After the trial we went to my cousin Sable's house to watch TV and eat dinner.

Sable is a boxer and she's usually a lot of fun but I was tired and just went to bed in the spare bedroom. My Aunt Toni and Uncle Kevin thought it was funny.

This is my friend Libby and me:

She's a vizsla just like me. We met in agility class when we were only a year old. We do lots of stuff together. Hunt quail, go to the beach, run at the park, you name it. We also like to lie around and chew bully sticks. Sometimes we trade. We also celebrated our 2nd birthdays together. We had a big party and invited lots of our friends. There were games and treats for us and our parents. I love treats!