Friday, December 4, 2009

Fighting Over the Computer

[Tyssen] Ty here - I've been dying to t____ get off the .....give ME the keyb..ajo03j23io1k ionf

[Jada] NO! I want to tell about MY trial last weekend. It'll only mks sjfklJFLK;WFJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
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[Tyssen] It's just not fair! I was here FIRST! I'm telling!

[no idea at all who this was] @#IVOQI CKQOITYQ
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[Jada] Too bad! I'm OLDER! You HAVE to listen to ME! You 4tu2otn nth2OG;WWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Okay. This is Joni. They're all banned from the computer for awhile. I know....I said this is their blog and I've tried to keep it that way. But they're going to have to learn some more manners before they get back on here... and NOBODY gets to use the computer until I say so! Sheer chaos here now...keyboard full of fur....monitor all pawed up....and - oh my - that poor little mouse.....


Tyssen: Future Dock Diving Dog? Or Swan-Lover?

Fine....OKAY, I said FINE! I understand! I get to go first since MY show was 2 weekends ago. That's all I wanted to do in the first place before Miss Bossy tried to shove me aside! phttft!

I got lots and lots to report now that I've got keyboard control here!

First.....As much as I love being a Champion Show Dog and Up and Coming Agility Star, I've found a few other careers I think I'm interested in checking into. After all, I do have alot of time to fill!

I've considered lots of options....as much as I like tracking scents and chasing squirrels, I don't think the life of a hunting dog is what I'm quite thinking of. I suspect it's not really what I want to do for very long. It seems like it'd be rather tiresome to chase down those running piles of fluff - and whatever would I do with it when I got them? Unless someone will play tug-of-war with me with it there's really no purpose to catching it. I've asked around, and so far no one is quite willing to be on the other end of this tugging game with me. And then there's the poor squirrel...I don't want to KILL it, and I just don't think a screaching screaming squirrel is quite the same as a squeaky toy. So scratch that idea.

Herding? Puh-lease. I am DEFINITELY not one of those crazy dogs! No offense to any of those simple minded herding critters, of course, but I'd just go nuts trying to keep sheep or ducks together in one place. It sounds much more fun if they're scattered all over the place and then all the "real" herding dogs would grow to hate me. So nope...that won't happen.

So after lots of thought I've decided that maybe dock diving is the new sport for me! I'd never really thought of it until I was out at Judy's dock recently. WHOA! Check out all that great water! And the birds in it are awesome! Jada's told me about this place and it's NOTHING like she described! It's an amazing place! The only bad thing is that they kept my leash on. !@#$% Somehow they just knew I'd take a running dive into the pond if they didn't!

First, I met Swanson, the Swan. Cool dude! He came right out to meet me and made me feel right at home. He's a bit hurt that Jada won't give him a chance, though. I tried telling him that Jada was just....well, Jada, and once she gets something in her head there's no changing her mind.

Here's a photo of Swanson and me meeting for the first time.
Jada wouldn't come close to the pond and Swanson again. Her loss.....

It was when I was on the dock that it hit me - DOCK DIVING! Now I can't think of anything more fun! Flying down a dock and jumping into the cool fresh water and playing with the swans and ducks! But apparently in the real world of dock diving there are no swans....perhaps this is something they might want to consider, though. I can be pretty persuasive!

Here's some photo's of me trying to jump off the dock. There was some discussion if I was trying to jump off the dock just to get in the water, or to play with Swanson. You know...I'm not even sure of the answer to that myself. I think it was a little of both!




I did manage to jump into the water a bit on the shore before I was pulled back. I don't know what the big deal with me getting wet was - I was getting a bath the next day anyway!

I did get my bath the next day. Joni left me there with Judy for a few days to get a bath and for her to practice with me for the UKC show the next week. I had a great time, but I sure missed my nice warm bed at night! I had to stay out in the kennel for a few nights. It's a nice little bachelor pad....I can be inside where it's warm, or outside. We did lots of practicing for the show since it'd been awhile since I've done this. I don't know why they think I need practice - I never forget what to do in the ring!

A week later, just before the show, I came back for my "BLT" bath (Britches, Legs and Tail bath). I also got my nails done. I'm sort of a big baby for this. I'll let Judy clip up my feet, but boy oh boy, pull out the grinding thing and I start to become a baby. But I can't escape...notice how Judy has me pinned down.

Now I'm getting my BLT bath. Yeah...I know I look pretty goofy.

This is my mom, Lucy, on the left, with Jada, watching me get a bath. Sheesh.....how fascinating can this be? I think they're just worried THEY will be next!
Bath time is over. Now I'm ready for the big show!

UKC Conformation Weekend

What a fun weekend! I got to spend a few days and a few nights at the dog club - either inside showing everyone how amazing I look, or outside in Judy's motorhome. Jada and Joni were along also.

I did great at the show - won Best of Breed over a few other Keeshonds each show, and placed in Groups each of the four shows. I was in the Best in Show ring twice also. I even got to see Joni in the ring for the first time with another Keeshond. I thought I'd burst out laughing at this, but it wasn't that bad. Of course, we still beat her, so that was cool. She didn't take any photos of me in the ring this time to share since she brought the camcorder this time. If she ever figures out how to get them online, I'll share those!

Here are a few shots of me relaxing in the motorhome......

This is Judy going over the rules with me the night before .....

I thought this was all rather silly, and decided to put my foot down and object to all it all - this is supposed to be FUN!

I got my way, of course. They let me do anything I want sometimes....

This is me taking over Reuben's bed. Cute little thing (the bed, that is). But it was too confining after a little bit, so I let him have it back.

This is pretty much what our ribbons looked like after the weekend. These are actually from the March show, but it looked almost identical this time.

So.....guess that's about it for now. Except for this - I'm making my Agility Trial Debut in a few weeks! I just got my CPE number last night, so it's officially official now! We have a 4-day Trial over New Years. Jada will be running all 4 events each day, and I'll only be running 1 run each day. Joni just agonized over what to put me in, not to mention what part of the day to do it in. She can't figure out if I'll be more crazy in the morning or at the end of the day. She's just silly, though....I can be crazy at ANY time of the day or night! I do like to keep her guessing! She's got me entered in Level 1 Jumpers, Full House and two Standard classes. So.....I'll let you know later how it goes!

I hear we have PLENTY of practicing to do in the next few weeks. Joni hasn't let me jump more than 12" jumps in class, but she realized after she entered me in the trial that I'll have to jump 16". She did set up some jumps last week for me at 16" and I knocked a bunch of them down. Hey, it takes a little getting used to! Those things were at eye level and now they're higher! What, I'm supposed to remember that AND keep my eye on Joni for directions?
But after a few days of this, I was getting it. She took me to a "run-thru" the day before Jada's agility trial last weekend and let me run the course. I had a blast - the course was HUGE - much bigger than the courses at class. I loved it! We ran thru the 17 obstacles two different times and I didn't drop one 16" bar and I did everything in the right order!! This is gonna be fun! I can't wait till New Years now!

Jada's Busy November

Finally! My turn at the computer! Here I thought Ty was just going to go over his UKC show....had no idea he'd start waxing nostalgic about his crazy "career aspirations". [rolling my eyes here]. What can you expect from a swan-lover?

Yes! This was a VERY busy month! First my 3-day AKC Agilty Trial, which I previously wrote about. Then we were at the UKC show for two and a half days and nights...and the very next weekend we were at my CPE trial. But between the AKC and UKC show, while Tyssen was getting his show bath, Joni decided to it was time for ME to get a bath. I couldn't believe it! I wasn't even dirty!
Here's a photo of me being incredulous that I had to go thru this....surely she was just joking and at the last minute she was going to toss Tyssen in there! HE's the one that's always getting baths! Notice the sheer disbelief on my face....

But no...she really really meant it! Before I knew it I was soaking wet! (This is Joni's mom helping with me while Joni takes photos....)


Damn, I'm skinny underneath all that fur! So pathetic looking. This is what I get for laughing at Tyssen during his baths, I guess. (that's not really "Suave" shampoo - just using the bottle for our shampoo mix)


For some reason Joni just thinks it's hysterical to get photos of me when I'm shaking water off of me. Sad.
I'm giving her the evil eye the best I can while shaking.

But not too long before I'm dried and looking like my gorgeous self again.

Tyssen jumped up on the grooming table to reassure me that it was okay. He didn't even laugh at me and instead was very concerned and sweet.

My cousin Beckett (a Shetland Sheepdog) got a bath after me. He's a little ball of fur that looks skinny when he gets watered down also.


He's more pathetic looking than us during baths!

But he sure turns out looking pretty at the end!

Now on to my Agility Trial last weekend.

Jada's Thanksgiving Weekend CPE Trial

We had a really fun Thanksgiving weekend at the CPE Trial! I did 8 runs over the weekend - and got 8 Q's!
I also got a new title - my Level 3 Strategy Games Title (CL3-S when we got our last Level 3 Jackpot Q)
So all I need is one more Level 3 Wildcard leg and we'll be out of Level 3 forever. Everything else we're doing is in Levels 4 and 5.

We camped out in our usual spot in our big blue round crate surrounded by some of our favorite friends. On one side were our Keeshond buddies - Tav and Sky. I really really like Tav...but for some reason he just cringes when he sees me. His owner says he likes his girls to play "hard to get" and I just gush all over him, and that makes him nervous. But in a crate he's okay with me being next to him. On the other side of me was Benny, our big black lab pal. We just love being around him. He likes me a whole lot, but isn't as crazy about Tyssen. I think he'd like Tyssen better if Ty would keep his nose to himself and out of Benny's private parts!

These were our Saturday runs:

Fullhouse, Level 4.
We got 3rd place in this run.
1st place: 43 points in 35.26 seconds (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever)
2nd place: 42 points in 31.19 seconds (Wheaten Terrier - our buddy Tucker!)
3rd place: 42 points in 35.31seconds. (me)
Guess I shouldn't have backed out of that 3-point tunnel when Joni attempted a rear cross behind me. Bummer.

Then we ran two Standards back to back.
Standard, level 4, round 1
We got 3rd place again
1st place: 41.61 seconds (Sheltie)
2nd place: 42.65 seconds (Sheltie)
3rd place: 44.19 seconds (me)
Where are all these fast shelties coming from?


Standard, level 4, round 2

This was a tough one. The 3rd obstacle was to take the A-frame....but on either side of the A-frame was a tunn
el entrance! Wow! Good thing I'm generally a contact-sucker sort here! But Joni was worried that TWO big old gaping tunnel holes might be tempting to me. But she ran it like the tunnels weren't even there - and I could tell exactly what she wanted me to do and I did it - I took the A-frame. Out of 33 dogs running in level 4-5-C here, only 11 Q'd. The rest were sucked into the tunnels and an off course. Tough one! Here's what it looked like on the right here:

1st place was 37.60 seconds (Sheltie)
2nd place run was 39.13 seconds (me)

Jumpers, level 5
This was our last run of the day. We got 2nd place in this one, but not by much!
1st place: 26.63 seconds (Sheltie again!)
2nd place: 27.92
seconds (me!)
3rd place: 28.99
seconds (Border Collie)

Our Sunday Runs:

Jackpot, level 3
Fortunately, this was a non-traditional jackpot. Actually, they called it a "non-traditional traditional jackpot" - but all we cared about was that we didn't have that line down on the ground that Joni couldn't cross! We got 3rd place in this one
1st place: 63 points in 48.43 seconds
2nd place: 62 points in 45.65 seconds
3rd place: 59 points in 44.1 seconds (us)

Wildcard, level 3
We got 2nd place in this, by less than a second.

Snooker, level 4
Joni scared me a bit on this one. I know it was a long weekend and she just zoned out for a little bit on the course! We took the red jump, then the tire, then red jump #2 and into the weaves for 7 points. Then the 3rd red jump and back to the 7point weaves. Halfway thru the weaves Joni sorta lost it and blanked out on if this was the first time for doing the weaves or the second. I KNEW it was the 2nd time, but boy, she worried me for a second! I wasn't sure if she was gong to head back for the red jump again or start the closing! But she pulled it out and headed for the closing part of the game. Whew! Close one! Then she did some clunky front cross as I came out of the tunnel later on instead of the nice blind front cross she usually does, and it really threw me then. Where the hell was her mind at? She sent me over a jump, and I sort of balked at the next jump thinking she was really screwing up. But she insisted I go over and I did after giving her a few quick "wake the hell up" barks, then we finished. I really wonder about her sometimes! But we finished, as ugly as it was. Amazingly, it was also our first 1st place finish of the weekend also. Go figure! We also had the overall second highest point count of 46 points. (51 was the highest)

Colors, level 4
This just goes too fast! Literally! We ran this in 15.09 seconds for our second 1st place finish of the weekend.
1st place: 15.09 seconds (ME!)
2nd: 16.20 seconds (
Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever)
3rd: 19.22 seconds (Sheltie)
4th: 24.36 seconds (Border Collie)

Our time was the fastest of all the level 3-4-5-C's that ran the course.
fastest: me at 15.09
2nd fastest: a dog in level 3 with 15.21 seconds
3rd fastest: our lab buddy Benny at 16.05

I'm looking VERY forward to our New Years Trial! Poor Joni will have 5 runs a day to memorize, so I'll have to keep up with those wake up barks now and then. I'm also looking forward to Ty getting out there and running some! This will be fun to watch! Hopefully he does as well as I know he can if he doesn't act like a big ol' fruitloop out there!