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by Jada
I decided I needed a byline since it's hard to tell if it's Tyssen or me writing sometimes!
Thanksgiving was great for us - lots and lots of goodies were handed out as they were scurrying around making food. Yummy!
The day after Thanksgiving we had our Wishbone Way Team Agility Trial at the club. I was on a team called "Bad To The Bone" with a few of my buddies - Charm, a zippy little Rat Terrier, and Benny, a big black lab. We were only playing 2 games - Full House and Snooker. 26 teams competed - and we came in FIRST PLACE in Full House. I'm not sure where we placed in Snooker (wasn't in the Top 3, but Joni never went to look), but when they combined the scores for both games our team came in FIRST PLACE! I got a great toy and Joni got a gift card. Pretty fun day!
Joni also ran Reuben on a puppy team named "The Little Rascals" with a Keeshond puppy and a Lab puppy. They did pretty good also. Reuben can't compete officially until next Summer, but boy, he's going to be good!
Joni made their t-shirt design - Here's what they looked like:
The front:
The back: 
by Tyssen
It's about time Jada quit hogging the computer! Joni rarely lets us on there, but when she does Jada has to take a few hours trying to remember every last run she's had in the last 8 months. My agility career seems to be dead in the water compared to Jada's. Yeah, she has 22 DAYS of trials, while we've had 4 days that consisted of a grand total of 6 RUNS. That's it. Only ran in March and April only. But then I've been in 20 dogs shows since then, so I guess that makes up the difference.
First we'll cover that skimpy trial updates. My March trial I ran 3 times and had 3 Q's and in April I ran 3 times and only had 1 Q. The two NQ's were Snooker (got distracted by a great smell and followed it into a tunnel - didn't go IN the tunnel, but stuck my head in,which was enough for an NQ) and Jackpot (yes, I'm related to Jada! But I DID do it, at least - just was 1 second over the time! So there!). So that was it - sums up my 2010 agility career in one teeny tiny paragraph.
I would have done more CPE this on Labor Day and in October, but I hurt my leg in August and Joni is not letting me do any agility for several months until she's absolutely 100% sure that it's all healed up. It's fine....but I can't convince her otherwise.
I hurt my leg when Joni got me a Premier Easy Walk Harness.
Image from: http://www.premier.com/View.aspx?page=dogs/products/behavior/easywalk/productdescription
I walk just fine on a leash and collar, until I see some of the dogs in my neighborhood and I just can't contain myself. That occasional pulling was making my ruff break off and leaving a collar line. That's not good for dog shows! So she got this harness, which I really liked. This harness has a ring in the front of my chest, so if I pulled any it felt funny and I stopped. That is....until I forgot one day that I had this on. I was at the end of my leash when I thought this bulldog hates me was out in his yard. I started to bolt over there - forgetting this new contraption that was on me - and when it stopped me it pulled at my chest and my body twisted some - and my left back leg twisted and got hurt badly. I fell down and held it up and was crying for Joni to help me. She ran over and rubbed my leg, which helped a little. I got up and didn't want to put it down. She laid me down and rubbed my entire leg some more. I was limping a little, but then it felt fine. But the next day I just hurt all over for a few hours. It was fine after that day....until I'd come down on my back leg wrong and I couldn't help but let out a little yelp and hold it up. Joni took me to the vet, but all he said that I sprained it. She later took me to a dog chiropractor. I wasn't sure about this, but he really did help me alot. I've had one or two small incidents since then when I came down strange on it and it hurt a little, but it's getting better. I suppose it's smart to let me heal totally and not run agility for awhile. But do you have any idea how hard it is to sit there at these 2-3 days trials all day long and do NOTHING? [groan!]
In the meantime Joni has gotten rid of that stupid Premier Harness and got a Walkeez Dog Harness from the Clean Run site. I love this one! It's soft and padded and doesn't hurt me!
Here's a photo of it from their site - although mine is black on black - no red or any other colors:
Image from: http://www.releashme.com/index.html
I've been doing lots of UKC shows. I'd love to do some AKC shows again, but we have to wait until my ruff grows out more.
This summer we went to the UKC Premier show in Richmond, Indiana since I was in the Top Ten. I was the #5 Keeshond for 2009 and was invited to the Top Ten show there.
The show was lots of fun. Wednesday was the Top Ten Preliminaries. There were a few other Keeshonds there, but I ended up getting Best of Breed. Groups were next, but not like normal groups. These were huge groups of all sorts of random dogs, not by their groups necessarily. There were about 45 dogs in my group - and I was the first dog they picked out of it to advance to the Top Twenty Finals. Pretty cool! The next night was the Top Twenty Finals. I had to go into 3 different rings with Judy and have 3 different judges go over me. At the end they called out the Top Ten out of the Top Twenty - and I was Number 4 overall! Not too shabby!
I had nothing to do for the rest of the show. Judy had brought along another Kees she had for the regular shows, along with Reuben the Pom and Rhade the Elkhound. So after my big night I just hung out and relaxed with Jada. We had a fun week there!
We've been to several UKC shows since then to get some breed wins for next year. Right now I'm ranked at #5, but that could change between now and the end of the year! Not sure what will happen next year since they changed the Premier show back to Michigan and Joni has to work that week. I might just be going up there with Judy only, maybe. ???
We have a new Cousin!
Yep, our cousin Beckett has a new pup living with him as of this summer - a tiny 12-inch tall tri-colored sheltie named Reuben. Hopefully nobody confuses him with our Pomeranian buddy Reuben! Little Reuben was 6 months old when they got him. Joni has been taking him to agility class so he'll eventually be running at trials with Jada and me. Yeah, he sure better not get more runs than me in!
by Jada
FINALLY!
Joni has been saying for MONTHS that she's too busy to let either of us on the computer, but COME ON! This is ridiculous! It's been since last winter since we've been on it and now it's almost winter again! She's got several computers, so what's the problem! Now she's even got a laptop, which she was a bit stingy with at the beginning and is finally starting to let us use. We've even been telling her that we can use her computer when she's sleeping, but noooo, she still won't let us. Where's the trust here!
I don't even know where to begin. SO much has happened! I guess I'll have to summarize alot.
My CPE Trial Updates
Okay, trial-wise I'll definitely have to summarize alot. Since my last posted entry we've done a whopping 22 days of trials! No way can I remember everything we did now! But you know I'd love to try!
Let's see....in CPE we've done alot, but only 2 more titles - my Level 4 Standard (CL4-R) and Level 4 Handler (CL4-H) titles. I'm in Level 5 and working hard for my C-ATCH title hard here! Wait, I still have 2 more legs of my Level 4 Jackpot (groan) to get. Geez, I hate this game! They don't have enough of these at trials, and when they do they keep having "traditional" jackpots and I desperately need some "non-traditional" jackpots! This is the game where I have to finish it up by working far far away from Joni and you all know how much I hate that! I've come so close on some of them, though! I might have gotten some of them if I hadn't objected strenuously at the beginning at Joni coming to a dead stop by this colored tape and insisting that I go on without her. I always forget that it's okay sometimes! I can't remember everything! The last Jackpot we actually got - it was a "non traditional traditional" - which I kinda like. I did have to do a teeter far away from Joni and going away from her AND get that stupid contact - but I did it! When I got off of that I had to go to some off-side weaves. I thought Joni would pass out when I did this!
So the way it's going we'll have runs up to our C-ATCH 3 or 4 levels before I finish this level 5 Jackpot!
Anyway, we've had some good CPE trials. The March trial we had 7 out of 8 Q's (only NQ was Jackpot, naturally). Our April trial was kinda crazy - we only had 5 out of 8 Q's. One NQ was Jackpot (again), but I screwed up on Wildcard and Colors also. Yeah, I know - I never do this sort of stuff. The Wildcard was just me laser-locking into another tunnel while coming out of a tunnel. I LOVE TUNNELS. Joni wanted me to stop after the first tunnel and take some jumps, but I was having SO MUCH FUN flying thru these tunnels that I totally tuned her out. Not a good idea in retrospect! The Colors course also involved a tunnel. There was a tunnel next to the A-frame an both times I was suppose to take the A-frame. I took the A-frame the first time, but the second time I decided to take the tunnel. Again, not a good idea once I had a chance to think about it.
We didn't have another CPE trial then until Labor Day weekend, and that was a 3-day trial. I did great there - had 11 out of 12 Q's. I know y'all are expecting this one....only NQ was...drum roll.....Jackpot. Big surprise. But that Jackpot I was mentioning before (with the teeter) was also at this trial and I got that one!!!!
The end of October was our most recent CPE trial. I was 6 for 8 on this one. In 5 of my 6 Q's we got 1st place in 5 of the 6 Q's and in 3 of them I was the fastest dog of ALL that ran the course! In the other 2 I was the 2nd fastest dog overall! Amazing, in 2 of my runs I was running in the 18+ FEET PER SECOND range!
The two NQ's? Well, we split those. Joni was brain dead on the first day after a long long wait of over 5 hours between our 2nd and 3rd runs. Standard was our 3rd run and her brain just flat-lined for a few seconds. We were heading down a line of jumps towards a tunnel when it happened. All this time I was heading for the right entrance to to this tunnel. At the last minute Joni suddenly tried to call me off of that entrance and into the other one. What was she thinking? I went ahead and went into the right side entrance knowing that I was right! But when I came out of the tunnel Joni was there still insisting that it was the wrong end - so what did she do? She told me to go BACK into the tunnel! For a second I thought maybe she was right and I screwed up - I went back thru the tunnel and we continued on the course. But I was RIGHT! Joni putting me BACK into that tunnel was our off-course! Boy, for once it's nice to not be the reason we NQ'd! I know she felt like an idiot then, but hey, it happens!
The other NQ was my fault. I just love going fast so much that sometimes it's hard to stop! I get on the teeter and I go all the way up to the yellow section and stop and wait for the teeter to move. It goes down as I wait impatiently...and once it hits the ground I'm just DYING to start running again! So sometimes it just seems silly to take one more extra step and get a foot into that ridiculous (yet important!) yellow section. So I forgot - sue me. Guess these CPE judges are less impressed with my athletic abilities than the yellow contact rules. I'll be working on that for the next time!
So that's it for CPE so far for the year. We have 6 days of CPE trials coming up in the next month, so that'll be fun.
My AKC Trial Updates
We did alot of AKC trials also during this "Joni won't let me on the computer" time. I have some issues with AKC and some of their silly rules, but after a few times of testing them out on the rules, I have figured out that they're actually quite serious about them and won't bend any of them just because I think I'm being cute or inventive out there. What I've figured out is they don't particularly like if I drop an occasional bar, or if I decide I've done enough weaves and am ready to move onto the next obstacle. They also don't like me showing off my athletic ability by jumping on the table, and "boinging" off and jumping back on in a blink of an eye. Apparently the judge did NOT blink at that moment and saw it all.
First was the trials in May. The first weekend we were 2 for 5....yep, 2 Q's and 3NQ's out of the weekend. Not good. One NQ was that I didn't see a jump that Joni expected me to see and they got me for a refusal when almost ran past it - then saw it at the last second and then jumped it. One was me popping out of weave pole 10 when Joni glanced up to check out where the next jump was. I swear I thought she was ready to bolt for it - so I left also! Another was a dropped bar that mysteriously fell off when I went over it. Sheesh. Picky picky picky. But I finished my Novice Standard title at this trial.
A couple of weeks later we had a 3-day trial again. This was our first trial at an indoor soccer place with fake grass and boy, is this stuff great! I am SO AMAZINGLY FAST on this stuff! I was faster than Joni anticipated because all of our front crosses were turned into rear crosses since I was flying thru the course! They worked, though. I don't like them, but they worked. But the downside is that I'm too fast for myself! Yes! I was getting to places faster than I thought! I saw an obstacle coming up in a blur then - BAM - I'm there! I couldn't adjust fast enough a few times so they actually called that on me! WTF? Give me a break Did they SEE how fast I was running? I can hardly be expected to come to THAT fast of a stop and make a weave entrance!!! See, this is what I mean about AKC. They're very unforgiving. What a buncha mean people! I'm not sure I like AKC at all! I did get my Open JWW title at this trial, though.
We ended up with 2 Q's out of 6. Not good at all. Joni was beginning to not like AKC as much either, but insists that we keep doing it. Sigh. Guess one of us will have to get their act together!
Next AKC trial was in August. Well, we're up to a 50% Q rate this weekend. 2 Q's out of 4. My first Excellent JWW course and I missed the friggin' weave pole entrance. But it was an exceptionally TOUGH weave pole entrance and alot of dogs missed it also. Still...we all know I'm not like "most" dogs.....
I did get my next Excellent A JWW Q the next day, though! also got my Open Standard run - ran it great! The next day, however, would have been my last Open Standard leg and I ran that great also! But I dropped the bar on the last jump! Joni didn't even know. She was so happy with me and thought we had it! I wasn't sure how to break the news to her - I was so devastated and embarrassed! But halfway back to our seat someone told her and she didn't even believe them! She didn't believe it despite numerous people telling her until she saw it for herself on the video. I felt SO bad then! I don't even know how it happened! I was running so fast and we had run it perfectly! I think someone sneezed or something out there and made it fall!
So two weeks later we were off to another trial that we weren't scheduled to do, but Joni was determined to get me out of Open Standard before our next 3-day trial at the indoor soccer place. She thought having both runs in Excellent would be easier in a 2-ring trial, which made sense to me also! So we went to this next trial and we only ran Standard only. I got my Open Standard title that first day and the next day I got the first leg in Excellent A Standard! Good weekend for us!
Now we're in Excellent in everything and ready for the next trial.....only to end up with 1 Q and 5 NQ's. What a horrible weekend. Joni was to blame for most of this, but I'll take my share also on one or two of them. We did get our 2nd leg in Excellent A JWW's - but that's it. Out of the 5 NQ's I can fully take blame for ONE of them and Joni accepts full blame for 3 of them...the other one I'm not supposed to talk about since it was the judge's bad call that caused it. Nuff said about that. I'd like to bitch about it, but Joni has threatened my computer privileges (such as they are - hmph!) if I get us banned from AKC for voicing our shared opinion of this event.
Okay. My mistake was that I thought it'd be a cool move to jump on the table and bounce off immediately - showing off my awesome athletic abilities - and jump back on instantly. I could hear the crowd gasping and oohing and aahing when I did this....only to learn later that it was really gasps and groans of disappointment and dismay at my instant NQ! *@#$%. Nobody ever told me I couldn't do this! Apparently I was supposed to just "know" this rule. Whatever.
The 3 NQ's Joni was responsible for was just BLOCKING me or distracting me! She did a great front cross in front of the teeter -but misjudged it and was blocking my entrance. I tried to adjust, but going around her screwed up my forward momentum and I was only able to touch the teeter before going off the other side by the first contact. The next time she mis-judged where she was and blocked my weave entrance. I tried to improvise by going into the other side of the weave entrance, thinking that maybe the judge wouldn't notice. Hey - I was desperate! If I stopped it'd be a refusal! I'm TRYING here! Those AKC judges are pretty sharp sometimes, and they saw my slick move and called it. All I could do was try, right? The last one was the most absurd. I came flying off a jump and was just laser-locked into that weave entrance. Joni wasn't blocking it - it was a perfect entrance. Just as I got inches from it, Joni suddenly says "Jada, weave!". WTF did she think I was doing? I stopped to make sure I wasn't doing the wrong thing and was utterly confused for a second - only to find out she wanted me to do the friggin' weaves I was heading into. What an idiot she can be! Oh wait - let's let the judge call that one also. Joni, Joni, Joni. You've GOT to shut your mouth sometimes! You can't take me totally out of obstacle focus and into idiot handler focus!
I tell you what - she has GOT to get the VIDEO up of these runs! She's got them! I think she's just embarrassed about some of this stuff!
Looks like we're all caught up with my trials this year since I've been not allowed on the computer. Next Friday is our Wishbone Wag Team Agility event. Our team is called "Bad to the Bone" and is made up of a few of my best buddies: Charm, a Rat Terrier, and Benny, a big black Lab.
The weekend after that we have a trial on December 3-4-5 - then again on December 31, January 1-2. Hopefully we have some great runs!
It's official - I'm the #5 UKC Keeshond in the country.
I'm looking forward to my invitation to the UKC Premier Show this July! The Top Ten dogs of each breed are invited to this Show! Can't wait!
Jada: Yeah, it's been a few weeks since our 4-day trial, but this is the first time we've been able to pry Joni's fingers from the keyboard and catch up on our blog! It was also pretty tiring doing this, but SO much fun - and that's all that counts!
Overall, I had a pretty good trial. I did 16 runs, and had 14 Q's and 3 new agility titles!
This was also Tyssen's first trial! He was only doing one run a day, but he had 3 Q's - and got his very first agility title! Way to go Ty-baby! I was really proud of him! I'll let him tell you about his runs in a little bit.
It was a busy week or two leading up to the trial. Joni had us down at the Club practicing alot. Silly, but she realized after she signed Ty up for the trial that he's only jumped 12" and had to jump 16" at the trial. Oops. So that was a good reason to work extra with him some. He can jump 16" easily, but he sure put on a show a few times that he couldn't do it without dropping a bar. He'll do anything for those extra treats and practice!
But then again....maybe Ty isn't pretending he doesn't know what he's doing! We went to practice a few days before the trial and he was a big ol' fruitloop! What an idiot he was! I was cringing with embarrassment watching that debacle out there. It wasn't that he'd forgotten....he was just a total flake! Joni was not very happy with this. In fact, she drove us over there the next day to practice again. This time Ty's brain was fully functioning and he did pretty great.
Thursday, December 31
Jada: Finally - we're at the trial on Thursday! It started later on the first day, so we didn't have to get there until 10am or so. Joni got Tyssen measured for his height card and we were ready to go.
First up was Full House. I ran this pretty well - got 42 points in 32.89 seconds (only needed 25 points) and a 1st place. This is how the rest of the class looked (level 4)
1st: 42 points / 32.89 (ME!)
2nd: 41 points / 33.74
3rd: 32 points / 26.52
4th: 32 points / 37.76
There were a few other dogs with more points - 45 and 49 - but they were in other classes or levels.
Next up on Thursday was Wildcard. I screwed up a few times in this earlier, so I'm just now on my last leg in Level 3 for this. No pressure! The course time was 33 seconds and I ran it in 16.83 seconds for 2nd place. 1st place was 16.33 seconds....lost 1st place by half a second. Oh well....we're moving up to level 4!
Here's my stats for this course:
Course time: 33 Seconds
Yards: 75
Our Time: 16.83
Yards per second: 4.456 (13.368 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.594
Snooker was next...which I did horrible on. I just wasn't thinking...and I back jumped the second red jump. I have no excuse....;-(
Jumpers was next. Pretty standard Jumpers course....except I dropped a bar. I have no idea how that happened! I think I've only dropped one bar at a trial ever! But it happens, I guess. It did drop me to 3rd place because of the fault. I would have had 1st place since I had the fastest time.
1st: 30.65
2nd: 32.68
3rd: 26.74 (MINE)
Yep. That sucks.
Course time: 33 seconds
Yards: 122
18 Obstacles
My time: 26.74
Yards per second: 4.562 (13.68 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.673
And how's this for one days work....3 titles in one day! I finished up my CL3-H title with that Wildcard Q, which also completed my Level 3 title. I also finished my CL4-F title with my Full House Q. Now I have a few more titles to add to my name here!
Tyssen's up for Jumpers next - his VERY FIRST RUN EVER at a trial!
I'll give up the keyboard and let him tell you about his run.
Tyssen: Hey - Tyssen here! This was SOOO fun! I knew Jada was having fun out there, but I had no idea how MUCH fun this would be!
Okay, I know I worried Joni a bit before the trial, but honestly, she's just way too damn easy to mess with. I act goofy and she just freaks a bit. I know what I'm doing.....I just like to have a bit of fun! But when it came right down to it - I did the job at the trial! So we get out there and Joni is giving me little bits of treats almost nonstop to keep my attention on her, which was good. I'm pretty easily distracted by all those other dog butts around me - all those pretty girl dogs to woo. It's just too hard to pay attention to jumping when there's a new dog to check out! C'mon - I'm only a teenage boy dog!
So off we go. I love to run as fast as I can, but I also like to look around while I'm running. So sometimes I miss an obstacle.Sorry, but it's just so fun having the wind blow thru my hair that - never mind. It sounds silly to even write it, so I won't. I blew by one jump halfway thru the course and we had to stop to go back and do it. Then I ran past a jump towards the end that I swear wasn't there the first time I ran by. Joni stopped suddenly and made me come back. I ran forward again (apparently on the other side of this newly appeared jump) and she had to stop again and get me back. OH! THAT JUMP! Was that there before? Fine - I jumped it and we moved on. Boy, they expect you to see EVERYTHING out there on the course, don't they? But we Q'd! I got 2nd place, which I guess I wouldn't have if we didn't have to stop a few times. Guess it made all my stats come down some, didn't it?
Course time: 46 seconds
Yards: 112
16 Obstacles
My time: 35.26
Yards per second: 3.176
Obstacles per second: 0.454
Yeah....I'm way faster than Jada and she has faster Yards Per Second? Guess I'll have to work on that. No way can I have her beat me!
Now for the 2nd day - Friday, January 1st.
Tyssen: I'm up first this morning - my very first Full House ever!
So we get out there and off we start running. I suspect Joni had a plan for me for this, but I knew I could make it better, so I did! Jada had already let me know that in this game was not a numbered course - Joni just made it up on her own. Cool! Gotta hand it to her, though, she recovered quickly from the few surprise twists I threw in there! She definitely can think on her feet! But there was at least one surprise out there for me. I started to take another jump and DAMN - it was a friggin wall! No way was this was a jump! I know it had to look funny the way I put the brakes on and skidded to a screeching stop right in front of it. Jada told me later that this was a panel jump and it's just like a regular jump. ??? Guess Joni will show me what to do on that some other time! It was all over pretty quick - pretty much just a blur to me now, though. I Q'd and got first place! I had 31 points (only needed 19) in 34.48 seconds! It was the most points in my entire Level 1! And even better - this got me my very first agility title since I Q'd in Jumpers yesterday. So now I can add that "CL1-F" title behind my name! VERY COOL!
Now for Jada's Fullhouse and the rest of her day:
Jada: Fullhouse was kinda screwed up for us. I have no idea what I did on this...they screwed up the score here by mis-adding it so I'm not sure what I got. I did Q, though. But until Joni looks at the video I don't know how many points I really got. But the Q is all that matters, right?
Next up was Standard. This is my 3rd of the 8 I need for Level 4. I got 1st place in this one. It was also the start of a little friendly rivalry for time between me and a Sheltie named Kovu. As the weekend progressed we were always really close to each others times, so it was kinda fun to see who beat who each time.
1st: 39.75 (MINE!)
2nd: 40.57
3rd: 42.85
4th: 62.30
My time was the fastest in Level 4....and the 2nd fastest overall of Levels 4/5 that ran the same course. The fastest time was Kovu...at 35.35.
The course stats:
Course time: 70 seconds
Yards: 164
18 Obstacles
My time: 39.75
Yards per second: 4.126 (12.378 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.453
Wildcard was next - finally in Level 4 in this! Got 2nd place in this one....
1st place: 21.32 (Kovu - sheltie)
2nd plae: 21.91 (MINE)
3rd place: 23.63
4th: 24.10
The 2 fastest times in Level 3-4-5-C were the 1st/2nd place times above.
Next up was Jackpot. Whew - not a Traditional Jackpot! Which meant we had a chance! Only needed 44 points for this....24 in the opening, 20 in the closing. We got 73 points adn 1st place! I was having so much fun collecting points! This was the highest score in the entire level 4 - and the 3rd highest off all levels.
1st highest: 76 points (Kovu / Sheltie)
2nd highest: 74 points (Charm / Rat Terrier)
3rd highest: 73 points - MINE
You'd think we'd be tired after two days of trials...but we were all pretty good so far, even Joni!
3rd Day - Saturday, January 2nd
Jada: We started off the day with Jackpot....groan.....a Traditional Jackpot. Which, of course, I blew entirely. All I had to do inside the line by myself was the tire, a tunnel (but it was on the other side of an easy jump C'mon!) and then the table. Sure....it sounds so easy seeing it in print, doesn't it! Joni tried to get me a few chances of practice by taking me over during the opening to make me do the tunnel rather than the jump. I took the jump the first time, and the tunnel the second time. But when it REALLY counted - during the Gamble - I opted to take the jump. I know....I heard Joni practically screaming "TUNNEL" to me over and over but I couldn't take my eyes off the jump - my eyes were just laser-locked onto it and no amount of screaming and yelling was going to make me stop! Big NQ here!
Ty's up next with his first Standard run.
Tyssen: Boy, I was raring to go this morning! I could hardly wait to get out there and tear that course up! I know I could beat Jada's times here! I could tell that Joni was getting a bit worried at the beginning....she kept her hand on my head before we started. I think she sensed that the millisecond she took her hand off my head I was OUTA THERE before she could even stand up straight..and she was right. Okay...so I was a bit too eager! I took off so fast I dropped the bar on the jump right in front of me - the opening obstacle. ARRRRGGGGHHH. I knew that was the stupidest thing to do, but it happened and there was no taking it back. I just had to run my little ass off and make up for it. I came really really close to missing a contact on the dog ramp, but it seems the judge thinks I got a toenail in. But I screwed up again. Joni did a front cross in front of the tunnel and I took my eyes off the next obstacle after the tunnel to watch her make this great blind front cross...and dropped the bar on that jump. One bar is okay but two will get me nothing but a big fat NQ. Oh, and I also decided to go check out the folks keeping score right next to the last obstacle. Just being polite - and it only took a couple of seconds! Probably not a good idea in retrospect.
Course time: 66 seconds
Yards: 128
15 Obstacles
Time:31.22 (3rd place)
Yards per second: 4.1 (12.3 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.48
Jada: Okay...now it's time for my Standard course. We got 1st place in this with a time of 47.61.
1st place: 47.61 (MINE)
2nd: 52.06 (Tucker - wheaten terrier)
3rd: 53.34 (English springer spaniel)
4th: 57.42 (English springer spaniel)
We were the fastest of all Level 4 dogs and 2nd fastest of 4-5-C level. Naturally.....the fastest dog was Kovu with a time of 47.57 in Level 5. We were SO close - only 4/10 of a second slower!
Course time: 75 seconds
Yards: 164
20 Obstacles
My time: 47.61
Yards per second: 3.445 (10.335 feet per second - kinda slow!)
Obstacles per second: 0.42
Colors was next. We got 1st place in this one also. We weren't the fastest in the Level with our 16.05 time - the fastest was 15.67 (an Australian Shepherd), but we were right up there with the fastest in Level 3-4-5C
1st fastest: 15.67 (Aussie - Level 4)
2nd fastest: 16.03 (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrieiver - Level 5)
3rd fastest: 16.05 (MINE! Level 4)
4th fastest: 16.07 (Smooth Fox Terrier - Level 3)
5th fastest: 16.2 (Charm - Rat Terrier - Level 3)
I think the 7th fastest was Kovu, my speed demon nemesis, with a time of 16.59. We won that one!
Jumpers was the last course of the day.....this long long long day.....I got this one with a 1st place and was the fastest dog in Level 3-4-5-C.
1st place: 27.24 (MINE
2nd: 28.96 (Kovu - sheltie)
3rd: 30.32
4th: 31.62
My stats were also way up in this one:
Course time: 48 Seconds
Yards: 148
18 Obstacles
My time: 27.24
Yards per second: 5.433 (almost 16.3 feet per second!)
Obstacles per second: 0.661
Sunday, January 3rd
Jada: The last day of the trial. I was getting a bit tired on the 4th day, but still was eager to run! Joni still seemed pretty peppy also, must to my astonishment. I thought she'd be dragging her ass by yesterday afternoon, but she's hanging in there. She's actually getting the least amount of sleep of all of us, but that's her decision....
First up was Jumpers again - my 4th leg out of 5 for Level 5. Maybe I am more tired than I thought, since I got a fault and was a bit slower this morning than yesterday's Jumpers. I got 5th place on this one, but mostly because I dropped a bar - again! Not sure why I'm doing this suddenly. This is my 2nd dropped bar this trial. I still had an okay time....was the 4th fastest time overall of Levels 3-4-5-C, but that 5 point fault cost me what would have been 2nd place. My time was 27.7.....
All levels fastest:
1st - 24.41 (Border Collie)
2nd: 27.15 (English Springer Spaniel)
3rd: 27.60
4th: 27.7 (MINE)
5th: 27.87
Course time: 38 Seconds
Yards: 132
18 Obstacles
My Time: 27.7 seconds
Yards per second: 4.76 (14.3 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.65
Standard was next....got 1st place in that with a time of 40.02. Kovu beat me by a little bit time-wise on that with a time of 39.36, but another sheltie (Abby Steele) beat all the times with a 37.56. Smokin' fast!
Course time: 74 SecondsYards: 177
19 Obstacles
My Time: 40.02 seconds
Yards per second: 4.423 (13..27 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.475
Tyssen: I was determined to not make the same mistakes today as I did yesterday! I promised to pay attention and look very closely at ALL the obstacles on the course! And it worked! I got 1st place in my Standard run and NO FAULTS! Too bad I blew it yesterday or I would have had my Standard title also..but I'll get that next trial! I did pass up one jump accidently, but Joni got me back and I picked it up without losing too much time. This is SOOOO much fun! I can't wait till the next trial!
Overall, I had the fastest time in all of Level 1. They say it was a tough course. Only 4 Q'd out of 11 running it in Level 1.
Course time: 70 SecondsYards: 140
15 Obstacles
My Time: 36.03 seconds
Yards per second: 3.886 (11.658 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.416
Guess I'm done for the weekend.
Jada: On to Colors next. I thought we were flying thru this, but we were only flying fast enough for a 4th place. But I Q'd and that was my last Level 4 colors leg.
1st: 14.86
2nd: 15.07
3rd: 15.5
4th: 16.05 (MINE)
Kovu really beat me on this one with a time of 14.5 - the fastest of all the dogs running.
Course time: 32 Seconds Yards: 79
10 Obstacles
My Time: 16.05 seconds
Yards per second: 4.922 (14.76 feet per second)
Obstacles per second: 0.623
This was fun to watch.....Joni ran another dog in Level 2 Colors - a Sheltie named Keegan. Now he is LIGHTNING FAST!
Keegan ran this 76 yard/10 obstacle Colors course with a course time of 38 seconds in.....9.92 seconds for a 1st place win (no faults). That comes to 7.661 yards per second - or 23 FEET PER SECOND! He sure was fun to watch!
Last course of the trial - Snooker. Seems kinda cruel to put such a tough thinking game as the 16 course of a long trial, doesn't it?
Joni really struggled with planning this course. She had some goofy course in her head that she admits she hated, but she couldn't think of another course to do. So she walked this one...and walked and walked and walked it. Then they started running it and she saw a better course people were running and she almost changed our minds. But the last time she changed the course we really blew it. So she want back to our planned course. But seconds before we walked onto the course, she changed her mind and decided to run the course she'd seen others run - without having walked it at all. Uh oh.....this was making ME nervous! They always say NEVER DO THIS! But we did it - got three 7's in the opening and went on and finished the closing successfully. Damn, she makes me nervous sometimes! We got 2nd place on this....only from a time issue since we had the maximum amount of points you could get. Joni didn't stick around long enough to see how many seconds we got 2nd place by - doesn't really matter. We were all more interested in getting home and crashing!
So.....until our next trial - just lots of classes and fun! Our next trial is March 6-7 and then April 24-25. Then 2 weeks after that we have an AKC trial on May 8-9. Not sure what we're doing after that......
[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.....
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!
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!
