Friday, March 21, 2014

Puppies!!


Puppies are now a bit over 3 weeks and I FINALLY got to visit them again today.  It's been a long time and they've grown so much!

I'm trying not to pick favorites at this point, but who am I kidding.  Red boy (RB) is currently my favorite boy.  I need to keep an open mind here...




RB trying to get BB to play


We took them outside for the first time today.  The girls were the explorers of the bunch.  Orange Girl (OG) scouted far and wide.  PG and BB weren't far behind.  RB and Itty Bitty preferred to cuddle.


RB really likes to make eye contact.



Puppy pile!

Liz asks, "WHEN WILL IT END???"


 RB and Itty Bitty are twins.  Love Itty Bitty's muddy leg.

I had a lapful of puppies most of the visit.  Love it!


OG shows how stressful life is for puppies.


RB!  So cute!

The 3 girls with Itty Bitty in the middle.

BB is MAD!
iphone 069 from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

NeverMind Dogs

Will share more later when I have time, but lets start with sharing the video!  Lots of fun to make!

NeverMind Dogs from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Agility!

I haven't trialled much since thanksgiving because the majority of the trials are at Santa Rosa and I avoid it since Icon's jumping is awful there.  Rampage seems to really like it though so I guess going forward there's no need to avoid it.

There was a trial at Leone Equestrian last weekend.  I entered Rampage and discovered a few new weaknesses that I'm happy to have found before AKC nationals.  One is slightly offset wingless jumps after wings.  We had two refusals this weekend which I suspect was due to the wing/wingless sequence.  When we train at home or PP we pretty much always work with colorful big-ass wing jumps so we haven't had much experience looking for and taking lighter colored wingless obstacles.  And quite a few jumps at AKC nationals are white and wingless.

The 2nd weakness was the spreads, specifically the double.  When we practice spreads they are generally constructed out of two wing jumps, which doesn't present the same picture as an AKC double with the wings at the back.  It's interesting how in the Sunday Standard course you can see Ram take off late for the double, which I suspect was him focusing on the wing for the takeoff point.

But other than that, I thought Rambles did a great job last weekend!  And the courses were so fun!

Mt Diablo DTC - Rampage Sat JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Mt Diablo DTC - Rampage Sat Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Mt Diablo DTC - Rampage Sat T2B from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Mt Diablo DTC - Rampage Sun Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Mt Diablo DTC - Rampage Sun JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Puppies!

I went to vist the puppies on Friday.  And they're already so much bigger by now!  Blue and Red are the boys, the other three are the girls.  Pink girl has been the biggest since they were born but I think red boy (aka 'captain hook' - take a look at his head in the 3rd photo) will pass her soon based on how much he eats!  The highlight of the visit was when I scratched their necks and their little rear legs moved.  Too cute.








Sunday, March 2, 2014

Horsie Love

We found a wonderful walk at the trial this weekend.  It was a bit over a mile bordering on horse pastures.  I could do that walk a million times and not get bored of the scenery (I have to admit the dogs were a bit bored by the 7th time, though).

On Saturday the ground was a bit soggy from the Friday deluge but the sun was shining with some featherlight clouds.  It was beautiful.




We came upon a pasture with two young colts.  The horses were intrigued by Icon.  Icon was intrigued by the horses.  But no one was exactly sure what to make of the situation.  Skittish behavior was seen on both sides.

(Rampage wanted nothing to do with the evil beasts and stayed as far away as possible)


Figuring we wouldn't befriend any horses this day we headed back to the RV


By Sunday, the sky was cloudy and threatening rain but Icon insisted we continue our mission to befriend the colts.

Our first time around didn't go so well.  Horsies were still a bit skittish. 


 But Icon offered a few handfuls of grass (ok, I offered the grass) and then the next time the horsies thought that Icon was pretty damn cool.  He thought they were cool too and asked me to get him a horse for his birthday.  Don't get your hopes up, Icon...




I didn't catch it on camera, but there was even nose touching involved.  True love.

Our last time on the walk was bitter sweet.

"I love you, horsies," Icon said with a catch in his throat, "but we'll have to say goodbye until next time."


"Please, don't give me that look.  I just can't stay here with you."

And then Rampage tried to drink gross pasture water.  But in his defense, he had just finished running JWW so may have been parched.  



Yum.  Horse poop water.

(No horses were harmed - emotionally or physically- in the making of this blog.)