Sittin' on the Stairs

Sittin' on the Stairs, originally uploaded by Suz&Jan.

The steps up to the back yard are one of Ecko's favorite places to hang out.

Glamour Girl

Glamour Girl, originally uploaded by Suz&Jan.

Stoker lives up to the nickname Mandy gave her on a daily basis.

Multi-tasking

Sunday was a busy day for the dogs. Decker, Chili and I left the house with Cooper, Tsuzi and Julie fairly early in the morning and went to a fun match. Cooper and Julie played conformation (and quite nicely too), Tsuzi hung out and kept us company, and Decker, Chili and I did Open obedience run-throughs. Both Chili and Deck were pleasantly surprise to see that their "Auntie" CJ was playing "judge" for the match. Confidence is always Chili's "issue" and she was quite happy in the ring on most of the exercises. Most of her errors were anticipation errors which I am happy to deal with as it means she is really "in the game". We have a bit of confidence building and proofing to do on the drop on recall and broad jump. Decker was his usual merry self. Never the most precise worker in obedience, he always has a good time and puts smiles on the faces of those watching. He does a pretty job job "getting her done" too, just not quite as smoothly as Chili.

While we were off enjoying ourselves, Jan was left dealing with naughty Stoker and Ecko at home. The two bad girls slipped into the garage as I was hurrying out the door to the match and helped themselves to a box of chicken necks I had thawing there. Ten pounds of necks later, Jan discovered them and had the delightful chore of inducing vomiting to relieve their distress from their gluttony. Stoker was so full of chicken necks she couldn't even jump on the couch!

After the match, Julie helped mind Chili while I laid a few short tracks for her. Chili seems to be catching on to this new game pretty quickly and I just need to hope that I don't do anything to mess her up before I get another chance to track with a friend who knows how to do this better than I....

We goofed off for a couple of hours when we got home, then did a little agility (just jumps and weaves) in the front yard before dinner. Ecko is doing 6 closed up weaves pretty accurately now, even with a little more difficult entry and she is gaining speed and sequencing with jumps before and after too. After I worked her, Jan came out and worked all three of the other dogs. Wow! We worked with Decker on rear crosses and I think he is finally starting to "get" them. I can set things up in our small yard so it doesn't really make sense for him to spin the wrong way and just do small sequences to help him get things right. Stoker ran really well for Jan. He asked a lot more of her than I usually do and she hung in there with him and didn't try to quit on him at all.

A full time job

Keeping up with the four dogs is a full time job, and one I wouldn't trade for anything. Here is what we did in the last couple of days:

• Friday PM: spent about 1-1/2 hours brushing Chili out while watching TV (note to self - if you would do it more often it wouldn't take as long!)
• Saturday: Got up at 5:30, drove 3 hours to a tracking workshop with Chili, spent the day learning, drove 3 hours home.
• Sunday: Bathed Ecko and Decker, biked Ecko and Decker (thankfully Jan walked Stoker and Chili!), played around doing Rally with Stoker and Ecko (and Julie, Tsuzi and Cooper), went to a friend's house to help groom her PWD that is recovering from a cruciate tear
• Monday: agility class for Decker. While Jan was running Decker in class, I laid a couple of short tracks for Chili in the field outside the agility barn. Gave Chili a bath when we got home.

Now if only I didn't need a full time job to help pay the bills, I would have even more time to spend with the dogs.

Looking on the AKC website the other day I was pleasantly surprised to see that Stoker had finished her NA trial with Jessie at the trial a couple of weeks ago. I was thinking she needed one more leg, for some reason. Way to go Jess and Stoker!

Colorado Vacation

One of the highlights of my teeny-tiny vacation (just under 3 days) was that I got to go riding with my Dad and sister. Not a single photo of Mom and my three nieces! I really need to get a small, inexpensive camera that I can take with me when I am travelling light on my judging assignments...

My sister Taunchy on her Appaloosa (yes I do mean that) gelding Lucky and my Dad on Haflinger gelding Ike.

My sister Taunchy and I with mare Ginger.

Taunchy on Lucky takes the lead and Ginger and I follow along behind.

Having not been on a horse for around 20 years I was extremely out of practice! Riding Ginger made me think of my endurance riding days.