Agility Ability Trial - Plano, IL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.