Wednesday, October 29, 2008

More Day Care Fun




Day care continues to be a blast.  Our Monday crowd is a big one so we took more pics of the fun to share.  I'm happy to report the ditch is about dry so no more baths needed before going home!

As you can see, this Monday was a few weeks ago (I was sidetracked and didn't finish this post).  I thought the mud pics were too funny not to share.  That bloodhound (our Jack) is lucky he was ever allowed back in the house, ha ha.  Hunting those skater bugs in 3" deep muddy water took it's toll on him.  :o


Happy Heeling

Before the Boise show, I captured some video of some of my students in a recent basic obedience class.  I was very proud of the work they were doing and how far they'd come since week one.  Notice how nicely the dogs are heeling and the absence of corrections.  Happy dogs and loose leashes = happy owners.  :)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Boise Show Day Four

I have more exciting news today!  It was a great four days overall.  Four new titles for students of mine, OTCH points for Jeb (158 now) and UDX2 legs for Suzie (she has 14).  We were in the ribbons every day but today.  Not too shabby!  :)

Phyllis and Misti got a FIRST place in Novice A for their CD Title!!!!
Sue and Tessa earned their CDX today!!!!
Ann and Watson earned a 3rd place in Novice B today (and that was with a no sit--nice, nice run overall!!)
Tiffany and Mica earned a FIRST place in Novice B today with a 197 that held up for High In Trial!!!  

Carla did much better with Indi today, but he got the itchies on his sit stay and stood up just as she came around to heel position.  I am proud to say that Carla is not discouraged by Indi's creativity.  She knows they'll get their CD.  She's right!

Now time for some much needed rest!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Boise Show Day Three

I have exciting news today!!!!!  We have two new titles!!!!

Congrats to Ann and Watson for earning their CD today with a 2nd Place in Novice B!!!!!

Congrats to Tiffany and Mica for earning their CD today with a 1st Place in Novice B!!!!!

Sue and Tessa are one leg closer to their CDX earning their 2nd leg today!
Phyllis and Misti are one leg closer to their CD earning their 2nd leg today and a 4th place in Novice A!  Congrats to you both as well!!!

Suzie earned her 14th UDX leg!  She scored a personal best with a 197 in Open B for 4th place!!!!  Jeb placed in Utility B with a 4th!

Indi continues to make things difficult for Carla.  I cannot say enough about this young lady and the awesome work she has done with this very tough Weim.  Indi is a doll, but I sure would be challenged showing him and here she is in Novice A with him!!  I'm so very proud of Carla for working so hard and not giving up with this dog -- they WILL get their CD, it will just take longer than we'd like.  They are winners in my book!  

It has been an exhausting show and I'd like to focus more on my dogs, but I love being there for my friends and students.  I hope tomorrow goes well for us all and we get some much needed rest afterwards.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Boise Show Day Two

It has been another exhausting day!  A quick recap:  Tiffany & Mica and Ann & Watson both did very nice in Novice B today for 2nd CD legs.  One more to go!  Carla & Indi nailed the stand and recall today and did better on heeling.   Indi broke our hearts getting up on the down stay.  I don't know why the judge had the Novice A dogs in stays with their backs to the busy stands, etc.  Oh well! Phyllis and Misti had a heartbreaker too.  On the sit stay when told to "stay", Misti went down.  DARN!!!!  Tessa (Sue's lab) decided to walk the broad jump today (such a common Open A problem), so we'll fix that.  Tony (also Sue's lab) did everything, but lost too many points for walking a lot in Utility A.  Tony is improved and it's nice he's coming close to Q'ing.   I'm proud of everyone and hate those heartbreaks have to happen to anyone.  We'll get there!  :)

Suzie didn't get a UDX leg today.  It was her day to blooper.  Oops.  I especially liked the drop on the come signal.  I signaled her, looked down and back up and she was in a down half way to me.   Guess looking down (not sure why I did) wasn't the thing to do.  :o  Suzie q'd in Open today.   She's really consistent, but we can't Q all the time.  Oh well, lol.   Jeb got a decent 195 in Utility for 4th place.  All the placings were 1/2 point off (1st 196.5, 2nd 196, 3rd 195.5, 4th 195).  It's nice that 195 is one of our not so good scores.   I like that!

So...tomorrow is another day.  Good luck to everyone!!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Boise Show Day One

It was a looooong day so I'll be brief.  I'd love to post video, etc, but I'm ready for bed!  I left the house around 7am and got home around 6:30pm.  Ugh!

It was also a GREAT day!!!  Carla and Phyllis survived their first day in the ring in Novice A.  Phyllis got her first CD leg and Carla lost out to a judgement call by the judge on the stand for exam.  So darn!  But with Indi being a Weim and so very tough, Carla did AWESOME today!  Phyllis earned a 3rd place with Misti!  Ann and Tiffany both earned CD legs from Novice B.  Both did a very nice job too!  It was a large class but Tiffany and Mica earned a 3rd place with a 196.5 (I think I got that right)!   Sue Foster and her labs faired well.  She earned a CDX leg with Tessa. CONGRATS TO EVERYONE!!

Now my brags.....most of all, I was thrilled beyond words with Suzie today.   She did nice heeling!!!!!!!  Someone from the Eugene show asked if it was the same dog, lol (they were joking -- she looked THAT much BETTER!).  She got a 194.5 in UB and tied with Jeb and another dog for 2nd place.   She heeled nicely in the run off, but didn't win it, so she got 4th place.  I was VERY happy with her!!  Jeb won the 3-way run off for 2nd place!  His run was lovely except the 3 points off for the auto finish on the first go out (almost an auto finish, about half-way between front and finish, lol).  Suzie also qualified in Open B (193) for UDX leg #13!!!  More decent heeling.   We stayed for the match and I played with her and Jeb in the ring with a toy and did a couple go outs and did some heeling.  I'm tickled pink with them both!

Now...time for some SLEEP.  :o 

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Eve of the show


Tomorrow is the start of the Boise AKC Dog Show!  I'll be competing in Utility B with Jeb and in both Utility B and Open B with Suzie.  I'm enjoying showing Jeb right now because he'll be 10 in December and it's been quite a ride--one I wish would never end, but it will.  Right now he's healthy and feeling great, so I'm enjoying every day knowing age will catch up with him and retirement will happen.  :(  I love that hound!!!

Suzie has her UDX (12 legs) and a few OTCH points.  My goal with her is an OTCH. However, we have a ways to go before we get there.  So as I polish her up and get her scores up, we'll go for that UDX2.  I wanted to work her a lot before this show, but I'm not sure we've done enough since our last show to clean up her act.  :o These hounds are TOUGH!  But hey, I love a good challenge. LOL  

This year I have a few students competing.  I'm most excited about the two in Novice A.  I hope they have a great time and love the sport enough to become addicted like the rest of us.  ;)  I also have students in Novice B and Utility A. 

Good Luck to Ann, Carla, Phyllis, Sue and Tiffany and to all of my friend Alice's students as well (Alice is who got me and Jeb started in competition.  She has taught me a lot and I'm forever grateful for that!)!  THINK GREEN and QUALIFY!

My plan is to put updates up each day!  Wish us luck! 

For more info on the show, check out www.icckc.org.  The show is at the Fairgrounds.  The vendors (lots of cool dog stuff to shop for!!!) and breed rings are in the big exposition building.  Obedience is in the smaller building north of there and just outside of that building is Rally and Agility.  Obedience starts at 8am or 8:30am each day and goes until about lunch and sometimes until about 2pm.  The advanced classes are usually first (I have to be there early!).

Monday, October 6, 2008

Monday Dog Day Care Fun!





Monday is our biggest dog day care day at Precision K-9.   The weather was beautiful today and the dogs sure made the most of it!  Indi the weim is a regular and will be at the Boise show this week in Novice A going for his CD (Companion Dog) title!  Go Indi and Carla!!!!

There was much running, playing and enjoying the last week of water in the ditch.  Us humans like it when the ditches dry up (no washing dogs!), but not the dogs.   With the water dropping quickly, it was a water and mud fest!  With room to run, ditches to play in and warm sunshine it was a perfect day.  Here are some pics of the ditch dawgs:





Saturday, October 4, 2008

A quick first post....

Blogging seems to be the thing to do these days so I'm going to attempt it!

I've just finished up a day of lessons and training.   Somehow we managed to dodge the rain!  Each class began with sunshine and we were able to run for the garage to finish up training indoors.  It was exciting at times with the thunder, lightening and pouring rain.  

This morning we had competition practice -- our last one before the Boise show next week.  I'll be sure to post show updates next week.  After that training and a quick lunch break we had basic obedience class.  We are on week three...this is a week where things begin to go from chaos to controlled.  I'll be excited to see how much everyone improves by next class.   Watching a class go from start to finish is the best thing ever!  :)  

We had sunshine long enough to get some work in before the storm hit.  Magically, it cleared up for my advanced class.   We were able to work outside a bit before having to retreat inside at the end to avoid more rain and thunder.  What a day!

Tonight we'll go to a party for a friend that recently earned a CDX after much struggling to get there.  Time to celebrate!

Tomorrow....Sunday....more training!  (and hopefully some pictures to post here)

Stay tuned!

Paula