The Dog Burglar...

Jessie and Julie met at my house (sort of a half-way point for both of them from their houses) to groom Julie's dog today. Jan and I were gone at work, and the pack 'o four was extremely happy to have people arrive to entertain them. While there, in addition to grooming Cooper, Jess practiced weave poles with all four dogs and dremeled all the dog's nails. I wish Jess would stop by my house more often while I am at work. What a concept.... Sort of a caped crusader for dog owners and their bored pups.

I got Chili's RA title in the mail today. 2009 has started off with a bang with two titles earned already so far (Chili's RA and Decker's OAJ). It got me thinking, just how many titles could a somewhat motivated dog owner with four eager dogs and a bit of an undersized budget earn in a year? I'll keep you posted as the year progresses...

Excellent Decker

Decker was a very naughty boy on his excellent standard run at the agility trial we went to yesterday, running behind my back to take the off-course dog walk for his second obstacle. Bad Decker! Luckily he redeemed himself later in the day by qualifying in Open Jumpers with a fourth place finish to earn his OAJ title. With some more weave pole practice and work on our rear crosses, I think Decker and I will really be rolling in agility... What fun!

Ecko at Rose City

Ecko was entered in conformation and brother Cooper came to cheer her on. Cooper looks really stressed out, doesn't he? Thanks to Tracey Gamley for the first six photos and Susan Myrick for the final two.

Rose City and Cool Links

Last weekend was the Rose City dog show in Portland. The show is one of the first big canine events of the year and features agility, conformation, obedience and rally obedience all under one roof. Acres and acres of dogs..... It's a really fun show and there are always terrific vendors to shop there too. Three of our pack were entered this year.

Chili acquited herself well in rally obedience. After many months laid off recovering from an injury, she was entered in Rally Advanced and earned a 3rd place on Saturday and 2nd place on Sunday to finish her RA title.

Decker and I competed in agility for the first time since he switched handlers (from my friend CJ to me). We qualified in Open Jumpers with a 2nd place for our first run together. He had several other nice runs, but no more Qs over the two days he was entered.

Ecko was entered in conformation on Monday. I feel like she really needs to mature a bit before she is competitive, but I entered her anyway because the PNWPWDC was supporting the entry. I had finally worked on teaching her to hand stack and practiced "out and backs" with a free stack at the end. With minimal practice, she showed that she had learned both those lessons well and really showed nicely, so I was pleased with her performance.

One of the people on a PWD e-mail list I am on posted a link to this AKC video illustrating the PWD standard. The video was shot in 1987, I think, so it is interesting to see the changes in trim and presentation since then: http://www.dog.com/dog-breeds/portuguese-water-dog/

Someone else on the list posted a link to a 1975 Sports Illustrated article that talked about the judging of the first USA PWD fun match at the Miller estate.
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1089396/index.htm

alternative medicine?

Although I have great respect for the conventional veterinary clinic where I take the dogs and rely on them to provide the dogs with excellent care, I have also explored alternative measures where I think it will benefit. The dogs are fed a raw diet, visit a chiropractor on a somewhat routine basis and have had acupuncture treatments to help with healing from injury. I found this article particularly interesting because I think Ecko and Decker are both battling a mild yeast infection right now. I have been using tea tree and neem to treat the areas topically and have added some coconut oil to their diet. While they seem to be improving, they may be getting a few other spicy additions to their meals until things are completely cleared up.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning dawned peacefully here with the sound of melting snow dripping off the eaves. Although the blanket of snow we've experienced over the last week has been beautiful, it will be nice to have bare roads to commute to work on once it's gone.

Here are some photos of Eckos brother Cooper enjoying his birthday ice cream. I hope Tsuzi got to have some too, Julie!

And thanks to the O'Reilly family for these photos of Ecko's sister Chloe enjoying the winter snow with her family...

Snow Day 2008

When we lived in Alaska, almost every day was a snow day in the winter. Here in Beaverton we don't get much snow, so it really gets everyone's attention. Here are some photos of the dogs out enjoying the snow.