Cool Diggity Dogs

(Woodinville, WA) After a meeting out at the new property, we came home and decided it would be a perfect day for a family swim. We figured with the temps in the 90's, even Wazzu and 2iggie might go in....it wasn't quite that easy.

For those of you that keep saying "more pictures please", this post is for you!

We started with the boys as they are the swimming mianiacs.

Boogie is much more talented than we even thought. Maybe we should start a new sport - water tail art.



The boys were wild today, especially Slugger. He swam/dove with reckless abandon.

Normally he goes in from the steps to enter the water. But today he wanted to dive off the side. Sometimes he had pretty nice form....



...getting the toy with such skill.



...and sometimes...well, not so much. Poor guy, this must have hurt.



And I'm not sure what kind of form you call this!



Even when going in from the steps he was diving instead of gently pushing off like normal.



Boogie was crazy too. He normally does his diving from the step but today he was diving from the side as well. As you can see, he is the one with amazing form!



The boys had a great time diving and swimming together with their pretty orange toys.



Notice how Boogie is wearing a collar. This is strictly for the purpose of keeping his head higher in the water so he doesn't swallow too much water. Even though we use this ball that is very squishy so his mouth can close most of the way, he still seems to swallow a lot of water. The collar helps....some.



The boys couldn't swim calmly very long. Soon they started having a contest to see who could splash the most.





Both valiant efforts but I guess you can tell who won.

The boys were then put away so the girls could have some cool down time. Problem is, Sparkie is the only one that will go into the water willingly. So Mike had to get in at this point.



Much to her chagrin, we had to force Wazzu in the pool. Once she's in she'll swim around. She won't go for a toy at all, she'll just paddle around and around.



You may not know this but we've taught the girls to do synchronized swimming. Here Mike is setting them up for the start of their routine.



Down to the other end and make the turn.



And now down the rails together.




By this time, 2iggie still wouldn't come in the water and the boys were in the RV screaming to come out and swim some more.

Mike decided to pick 2iggie up and put her in the water. But soon as he got near her she cowered and piddled.

He finally got 2iggie and Wazzu in together. Talk about a herculean feat!



It took about five minutes to get them in and less than five seconds for them to swim to the steps and get out. Notice how high she holds her head out of the water. No collar needed for her!



I then let the boys back in since only Sparkie wanted to swim. Boogie immediately dove right into the pool. Notice who is watching so carefully.



I don't know exactly what goes through 2iggie's brain but I guess once she saw Boogie dive in she figured this was the safe way to get in the pool.

Suddenly 2iggie was a diving fool. You can see the surprised look on Mike's face as 2iggie unexpectedly dives in the pool for the first time.



She would dive in then make a beeline for the steps so she could get out.



She absolutely would not come in via the steps. And if you asked her to come in the pool she would run and hide. But boy did she ever love to dive in....just so she could get out.



You probably think this is a lot of pictures of her diving in. But I just wanted to give you an idea of what our time was like.

She must have done this 25 times in less than 20 minutes.



No one could believe her. As you can see, spectators lined up to watch her in wonder.



Boogie won't come out of the water without his ball. And the only ball he will play with in the pool is his squidgy ball.



For some reason, Sparkie suddenly decided she would only swim for the squidgy ball. As you can imagine, this caused quite a problem. Sparkie would swim after Boogie and bark at him.



Then she'd try to take it from him. But he's the faster swimmer of the two so it really wasn't much of a match. Boogie should play water polo as he's very fast and can turn very quickly.



If we threw it for Sparkie, Boogie would quickly dive off the side of the pool, then even dive down under the water to get the toy so that Sparkie wouldn't get it. Poor Sparkie. But no one comes between Boogie and his squidgy ball!



I took this picture while Boogie and Sparkie were watching for Mike to throw the ball. This is the exact picture I wanted....



...this is one picture I got. Offer me a million dollars and I could never get this shot again!



Time for everyone to get out.

Boogie always gives the ball back...until Mike told him it was time to quit for the day.


Everyone had a great time swimming today for sure.

Slugger - who would, and could, do this for days if we let him.



2iggie - the wonder diving dog.



Boogie - what a cute little tongue.



Sparkie - our most graceful swimmer but nowhere near our fastest.




Boogie absolutely, positively won't get out of the water unless he has a squidgy ball in his mouth. We were drying all the dogs off when Boogie jumped back in the pool. But since we were done playing, there was no squidgy ball. Boogie treaded water for over five minutes before we decided we'd better throw a ball for him as it was clear he wasn't coming out.



As you can see, everyone had a great time today playing in the water and cooling down. Okay, not everyone. Wazzu tells the story differently.

Boogie likes to dry himself...he's our most independent dog. To dry off, he pushes himself along the ground with his back legs while on his side. He can go 30 or 40 feet in a matter of seconds. Quite the sight to see.



Phew. That's tiring.



Boogie swallows a LOT of water when he swims. So much so that he makes himself sick. He looks like a balloon and he moans and groans with pain. He has to potty every 15 minutes for the next couple hours.

Each time he goes out to potty, he literally stands there three to four minutes just going and going and going.

The third time he went out he was in so much pain that he just laid down to do his business....at least four minutes of steady stream while lying down. Poor guy.

When he finally got empty, he was one tuckered puppy. But let me ask...when there is a very expensive memory foam bed right there, why does he sleep on the floor right next to it?



They're all out now...I guess our day is done.




I sure love this weather!

Debbie
8/16/10

Hot Diggity Dogs

(Auburn, WA) What a scorcher! This past week when we needed to be outside doing things (without dogs) it was cold and rainy. Then the weekend comes, the dogs need to be exerting themselves and it is sunny and 97. Go figure.

I've never been to a trial that had so many scratches. And of the dogs that did actually run, most of them literally walked...with tongues almost down to the ground. I've never seen so much walking on the course. But it really was too hot for all these black dogs and dogs with long coats.

Our dogs were hot but they had the luxury of being in an air conditioned RV between runs. I think that makes a big difference. And Mike completely drenched them before each run. Even Wazzu, who hates the heat, ran nicely.

This was 2iggie's first try at doing courses with contacts.



She did the A-frame perfectly. But the dogwalk was a different color than she's used to so she was afraid to go on it. Mike convinced her it was okay but she crept across all hunkered down. It was sweet and sad at the same time. She was afraid but she was trusting her daddy.

The most interesting thing with 2iggie was that she ran around most of the jumps. After we got home, Mike did some agility with her in the backyard and she did every single jump...so it's not a physical problem. Hmmm. But she did take a few jumps at the trial and did them very nicely as you can see.




She had really nice distance for such a newbie.



Speaking of distance, Boogie was The Man this weekend getting two (yes you read it right), two Elite Chances Q's. And he had some of his fastest Yards Per Second runs this weekend as well. He was really moving.



We think maybe it was the heat. He was too hot to bark much which meant he could concentrate better. See, we should have moved to Phoenix full-time!

When Boogie is weaving really fast, his rear end gets really low to the ground. So you can tell he is scooting here as his knees are almost touching the ground!



And I guess when you run super fast you have to use your rudder.






Great form, great speed...yup, that's my boy!



Most surprising this weekend was Wazzu. She hates the heat. Anything above 60 and she melts. But she ran fast and she was happy. How many dogs do you see smiling this big when they run!



We've never noticed Sparkie being bothered by heat or cold....during agility that is. She must be bothered by something as she barks the entire way around the course. You can see in this picture she is all watered down.



I rarely take open field pictures but this one seemed like it would be a little interesting since there were lots of tunnels in the shot. Sparkie sure does stretch out when there is room to run.



How many bars do you think Sparkie knocks? Tee hee.



Now for some show specifics. You won't find a nicer place to have an agility trial. Outdoors at Argus Ranch is the best. Nice surface, nice scenery, nice facilities, nice places for the dogs to play, great RV spots and hook-ups. The best!

And I normally love trials put on by this club. But in all our years of doing agility there has never been a trial that was planned so poorly...in terms of running order.

There were numerous times when the same level (Novice, Open, Elite) was running in both rings. Extremely poor planning. And they could have changed levels right at the trial to avoid this but they didn't.

Poor Boogie had to run Regular, in 97 degree heat, ....and he ran his little heart out in that run...and then he had to immediately go run Touch N Go. Mike and Boogie literally ran Regular, ran from that ring to the other ring and immediately did Touch N Go.

On a normal weekend that would have been rough. But in this heat it was unacceptable. Just ask Boogie. He did a few obstacles in Touch N Go then ran into a tunnel and laid down....he wouldn't come out. They could have let him rest a little between runs and it wouldn't have taken as long as it did to get him out of the tunnel.

I was not happy about that at all. Shortly after that, the same thing happened to 2iggie. She had to go from Chances directly into Regular. That's really not fair at all...especially for a Novice dog...and in this heat.

Sparkie had to run very close together...three dog break...twice. Very poor planning indeed!

But I loved lying in the sun next to the rings watching. Everyone kept telling me to move into the shade. Are you kidding?! I've been waiting a year for some sun, there is no way I'm hiding in the shade like everyone else! All that and not even a hint of a tan. Oh well, at least I wasn't cold.

Stat highlights:
2iggie got her Novice Tunnelers title and her Outstanding Novice Hoopers title.
Boogie got two Elite Chances Q's, 8 Q's all first place, super fast YPS.
Sparkie got seven Q's.
Wazzu ran in the heat!..and got a few Q's.

What a nice weekend.

Debbie
8/15/10