Water Trial article

In early January, myself and another PWD fancier were chosen (names drawn randomly from a pool of volunteers) to be interviewed for an article on PWD water trials to be written for Dog News magazine.  It was fun to talk to the author about my favorite activity.  She wanted to tie in the fact that healthy, sound dogs are more able to do the jobs they were bred for, so she asked us to provide pics of our dogs that were conformation Champions, as well as water titled.  Cooper and Ecko are going to be so snooty now that they are "published"...  The article starts on page 64, I think...

Open publication - Free publishing

Celebrating Decker

Our last blog entry was in celebration of Decker's 9th birthday and this one is mourning his loss to Hemangiosarcoma just a few short weeks later.  Happy and energetic one Saturday morning, he was gone by the following morning.  We miss him very much,

Decker's Birthday

Decker celebrated a birthday yesterday.  Our household would surely be less fun without this sunny, happy boy in it. 

The whole gang got pig ears and cupcakes (Decker got 2!) as a special treat and Decker got extra tummy rubs.  The cupcake brigade is awaiting orders to "charge" in the top photo and cupcake slaughter is imminent in the bottom pic.

Agility

Immediately after our last agility trial I was a bit disappointed.  I have since re-evaluated.

Out of 9 runs, we only had 2 qualifying runs.

Chili had a 100% Q rate.  One run.  One Q.  She was the 5th fastest dog in her class and we had a nice, flowy fast romp around the Excellent Jumpers course.  Nothing beats special moments like this, especially when they are with a senior dog.

Chili loves those Jumpers courses...

Stoker had a 0% Q rate.  Four runs.  No Qs.  All four of her runs were really fast, happy and confident on everything BUT the weave poles.  She does them in class and at home now, but obviously we need to take this behavior on the road more because it goes away in a trial.  Still, we are running well together and she is running with intensity and confidence, which is huge for us both.

Stoker was really charging and had that "wild child" look in her eyes.

Ecko had a 25% Q rate.  Four runs.  One Q.  We felt disconnected this particular weekend.  We have been focusing on water work all summer and our agility has probably suffered because of that, especially since she is younger and less experienced than the other two.  Although our Q was on a Standard course, our weakness is still on contacts.  Must train contacts!!!

Ummmm.....  I think we need to work on contacts....

Water Trial Pics

I am so proud of Ecko for earning her Working Water Dog title this Fall.  Thanks to Nancy Gaffney of Gaff Photography for the terrific photos that captured our weekend of fun.  There are a few pics of Decker's son Port too.

The "pretty" gear bag.

The "wild thing" gear bag.

Waiting for the judge to give us the go-ahead.

Big jump off the boat.

 It was very fun to get to see Decker's son Port and his owner Alex earn their JWD certificate too. 

Eyes on the prize - my dummy is out there and I'm gonna get it!

Nice water entry.

Getting back in the game

I just love our Ms. Stoker, but I'm not sure she is a girl that most Portuguese Fisherman would have had much patience with. She's a bit of a diva, not terribly focused, has lots of energy that is difficult to channel and is a sensitive soul that is hyper-aware of her environment. She does love to swim, is food-motivated, an eager retriever and has no problem flinging herself off a boat - attributes that made it easy to breeze through her Apprentice Water Dog (AWD) and Working Water Dog (WWD) titles. She's a girl of many contrasts in other areas too, but there isn't space here to go into that!

Unfortunately, we've been stuck in Courier training for a few years now. Two bad training sessions where she lacked understanding of what I wanted and where we had equipment problems (causing a constantly shifting sight picture/context...) and we hit a wall in water training. We did some recreational swimming and retrieving and I would put her up on the boat platform with me from time to time to see where her head was at. It was not a pretty picture. She would turn away from me and shiver, going from happy play retrieves off the shore to shut down and pathetic on the boat in the snap of a finger.

This spring, she happily decided that maybe she could do some easy jumps off the boat with me on the platform next to her. We've had about six training sessions at the water so far since then and I am so excited that Stoker wants to play again. With a better understanding of how little pressure Stoker can take in training and what she thinks IS pressure, I am enjoying the challenge of figuring out how to "explain" the Courier exercises to our little silver fox girl. We're not setting any real goals for now, just exploring the Courier level exercises from Stoker's point of view and enjoying the journey.

Rolling with the punches

We had hoped to breed Ecko this summer, with pups due in the late summer/early fall. We did several progesterone draws and left for California to visit the boyfriend we chose for her when the reproductive specialist told us to. "Do a breeding on Wednesday and another on Friday" we were told. Sure, no problem!

Well, Ecko had other ideas in mind and was not interested in cooperating with our plans. Due to the holiday weekend, many of the reproductive specialists in the area were not available, so we made a drive to UC Davis on Thursday to get a little help from the experts. Imagine our frustration when the specialist there confirmed via cytology that Ecko was going OUT of season and we had missed the window to breed her this summer.

Trying to take something good from the experience:

• The drive down and back passes through some beautiful country. From the golden landscape of California, to the inviting waters of Shasta Lake, the grandeur of Mt. Shasta and the Siskiyou Summit and back home to the lush green of Oregon - makes you realize how beautiful our country is and how fortunate we are to live here.
• Had a really nice visit with Elaine and Chris and some yummy meals including amazing Sushi that Chris prepared.
• Opened up a summer of water work with Ecko and a few more months of agility when the weather turns cooler again.