Wish us luck

Ecko weaves, originally uploaded by Suz&Jan.

Ecko and I are off to three days of dog shows tomorrow morning, with another four day show the following weekend.

We have been spending the last few weeks readying ourselves for the shows. We've been practicing stacking in front of the mirror in the bedroom almost every night. We've worked on gaiting in the cul de sac with the goal being to encourage her to not trot at top speed dragging me like the tail on a kite. We have gone to handling class a couple of times to give her some dogs to practice not chasing. We've been going biking in the cold, dark rain several nights a week to make sure she is in good shape (I dislike this, while she enjoys it!). I even broke down and spent some money on a new jacket and shoes to wear while showing her.

Lets hope these efforts pay off and the "great white hope" earns some more points soon. We would really like her to become officially the champion we know she is in our hearts and would like to be able to focus more on other games where we get to wear casual clothes (me) and get dirty (Ecko).

The goal for me this weekend is to take a cue from agility - where I try hard to succeed and get those "Qs" but also enjoy the journey with my parti-girl regardless of the outcome at the end of the day.

Dexter Update

Dexter is one of Decker and Shasta's pups (a littermate to Jazzy whose pics I posted recently). His owners (Kristin, Dave and family) were in touch with Cindy recently with an update and a photo, which she thoughtfully passed on to me:

"We are so happy with Dexter. He is a wonderful puppy and gets along so well with everyone he meets, dogs and people. He has such a calm, easy-going personality.

He graduated from his puppy school and we're thinking of doing some agility classes with him in January. Here is a picture of him after his first grooming done by Jonathan and Mike.
Thanks again for trusting us with Dexter and giving us a wonderful addition to our family."

What a super report! So far these pups are getting an "A" in the personality department and I think they are looking quite nice too.

Jazzy's Dentist visit

Decker's pup Jazzy had to have a couple of puppy teeth extracted yesterday. Sometimes puppy teeth are retained past when they should be and letting them stay can cause problems and throw the puppy's bite off. I hope Jazzy weathered her dental procedure okay. I'm sure Karen will let me know...

Since I'm thinking of her, here are some cute pics Karen sent me a few weeks ago. You can see that Jazzy and Karen's older PWD Roxie love to play. I think Karen's kids might be pretty fond of Jazzy too...

Road Trip to the National Specialty

My recent road trip to CA for the PWD National Specialty brought lots of memories, as well as being very fun!

Here are some random thoughts on the trip:

I am always fascinated by some of the junk art near I5 in the Weed area so this time I searched the internet when I returned home and found some photos of the dragon and cow sculptures. That is Penelope the dragon to the left. Penelope is the creation of Ralph Starritt of Yreka.

Another of Mr. Staritt's creations is "Moodonna".

The town of "Talent" Oregon (we drove past the sign on I5) was the inspiration for the call name for my friend Jessie's dog.

The last time I headed that far south with the dogs was when we went to the National in Ventura in 2007. Kilo died just a few months before that trip. This was truly a special week for me as I got to see his kids and grand-kids having fun with their people at the National. Kids Bella, Cooper, Ecko, Reef and Sydney represented him well at the National, as did grand-kids India and JoJo. Kilo came back to me in a dream recently, but he lives on every day in our house in his daughters and grand-daughter. Makes me teary just thinking about it...

It's not all about the "stuff" anymore

My birthday was yesterday and, no, I am NOT telling how old I am! Reflecting back on birthdays past, I can remember when I was young and my birthday was all about the "stuff". I would spend a month prior to my birthday thinking of all the great gifts I would like and counting the days off on the calendar until the grand day arrived and I got to dig into all those presents.

Karen sent me a birthday photo of Jazzy (Decker's daughter - right)
and her housemate Roxie - too cute!

In addition to noticing the sprinkling of lighter blonde highlights in my hair (I refuse to acknowledge that they might be GRAY highlights!) I also realized yesterday that, at some point, my birthday has come to be more about celebrating all the good things that are already in my life instead of wishing for more. I spent the day celebrating lots of birthday wishes from friends, the beautiful sunny day, the flowers my hubby surprised me with, the extra TLC and great training sessions I had with my dogs and the knowledge that I am blessed to have the most important things in my life on an everyday basis.

Pupdate

Decker's son Port has been off staying with my friend Julie and her family for a few days. He is coming back to our house tonight to spend the next two days, then we will head north to meet up with his new owner, Alex and turn him over for his travels to his new home in Canada. It will be a little bittersweet enjoying these last few days with him, but it is time for him to move on and we hope to get to see him occasionally and get frequent updates.

Ecko has surely been enjoying having him around and I got some pics of them playing on the back patio last weekend.

I have gotten reports on several of the pups and hope to have contact information for all their new owners soon, so I can keep tabs on the little guys.

Piranha Puppy Port

Decker's 10-week old son Port has been staying with us for the last 10 days and I am exhausted! It's so easy to forget how much work puppies are when you haven't lived with one for a while! I am a firm believer in puppy "management" when the situation does not allow for supervision, but the bottom line with puppies is you have to do a whole lot of following them around and teaching them what the rules are. If all you ever do is tether or crate your pup, he won't learn the rules very quickly, if at all. In addition, the little guy needs to get up in the middle of the night for a potty break still. I am SO missing having an uninterrupted nights sleep...

Port has been sleeping nicely in his kennel at night. During the day, he is in a spacious kennel run in the garage. I run home from work on my lunch hour to let him out for a romp in the yard, then it is back into the kennel run with his lunch. He gets free range of the house and yard in the evening when we are home and gets escorted to the yard frequently to remind him that he is to potty there and not in the house.

• He has been to the river twice and swam like a little fish on his second visit.
• He went for a walk to the end of the block and back and made friends with a scary fire hydrant.
• He likes to tug with the braided fleece toy and gets quite fierce about it.
• He likes to retrieve for a few tosses, then loses interest (no attention span yet).
• He eats like a little piglet. He has been getting mostly kibble with a ground raw prepared food, but this AM he had his first raw chicken wing, which he took to with gusto.
• He has teeth like a piranha and the adult dogs and humans in the house are doing their darnedest to teach him how to use them appropriately.

Altogether a fun little dude and I think his new owner Alex will have a blast with him when he heads north to live with her in another week. Some day when Decker is retired from agility, I think we will have to find one just like this for Jan to run