What a Weekend!

A while back, our club sent out a survey to see why people didn’t work more at agility trials.  As you might imagine, there were many different reasons.  One of the main reasons, was that they are running more than one dog so they don’t have time to work.  Mike is a very good example of how that logic doesn’t make sense.

Like every trial, Mike ran four dogs took care of a fifth, took care of me, and he still made time to work six times a day.  That is dedication.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous again today.  79° and sunny.  While everyone else sat in their tents in the shade, I laid in the grass in the sun.…  And got to watch agility.  I really can’t think of a better day in my situation.

And I was extremely touched.  Allison visited for quite some time with her wonderful border terrier, Grizz, who earned his NATCH-3 and Versatility NATCH-3 this weekend.  She also helped Mike out with his work assignments today when they conflicted with our photo shoot.  Visiting Allison was probably my favorite time of the whole weekend.

And quite to my surprise, Alison and her young baby stopped by to visit.  Alison is the one that showed Boogie for us in conformation.  We hadn’t seen her in quite some time so it was a very pleasant surprise.  Her baby is exactly the same age as Aria.  They’re both such good babies.  Seeing Alison was a very unexpected and joyous surprise.

I also had a very wonderful visit from Jeannine.  She was one of the very first people we met in Arizona on our first trip down for agility in 2005.  She had a dog named Jack that looked very much like Sparkie.  So of course we were drawn to each other.  We have been friends ever since.  Jeannine has since added two dogs, Roy and Jill.  In my perfect fantasy world, Jill would be my number one pick for my agility dog.  Of course that’s just a fantasy as there is no way Jeannine would ever give that dog up. And I'm sure she has a list a mile long of people that would like that dog! Every time Jill ran, I was blown away.

Jeannine has always loved the way Sparkie smiles.  So the two of them visited and did some smiling.…  With a lot of barking mixed in.  Again, it was a very pleasurable visit.  I’m so happy she took time to come to see me as I know she was very busy not only running her dogs but being trial secretary as well.

It really meant a lot to me that the three of them would take time out to come and not only visit, but sit down on the ground where I could see them.  Little things mean so much.

Of course the day was also enjoyable because I got to see all of our dogs run a run or two.  They are all not only doing well, but even more importantly they all look like they’re having a blast.

Boogie continued his amazing streak going five for six today.  His only miss all weekend was one very hard Chances run.  But he got two of three Chances this weekend which I would take any time.  So his grand total was 17 for 18. He ran fast all weekend. Good boy.

He did have something to say about Mike's handling on occasion though!  And he said it loud and clear!

Sparkie did really well today also.  Her only trouble was on her second Regular run.  She ran probably her fastest run of the weekend absolutely perfectly…  except for the very last jump.  Instead of being straight ahead, the jump was just offset a bit toward the middle of the ring.  Mike is used to running straight out of the ring....so he ran smack dab into the jump.  There went that Q!

But they still make a great team.

2iggie ran really fast....but she seems to have borrowed Boogie's Superman cape.  She lost 7 Q's this weekend due to flying off the A-frame.  We really need to find a place to practice before the next trial!

Wazzu made up her own courses today but got loud cheering from everyone anyway.  Too bad she can't hear any of it.

Fabulous weekend.  I told Mike that I'm requesting all agility weekends to be nice and warm just like that.  He said "request denied".  That means we have to go home in the winter.  Brrrr.

Debbie

On the Run

Another absolutely gorgeous day!  Sunny, upper 70's, happy dogs.

Boogie was perfect again today….another 6/6.  That is super great considering there was a Chances run today!

This picture may not look like much but it is actually very telling.  When he has his hind end really low in the weaves, it means he is going really fast.  He was really pushing it today.

Sparkie was running nicely again today as well.  Her only problem was on one of the Weavers courses.  The dogs came out of a tunnel, had to make a sharp left into a set of 12 weave poles.  The sun was directly in their eyes when they made the sharp turn and many dogs just didn’t see that set of poles and ran completely by them….the entire length.  Sparkie was one of them.  So she just missed time.

2iggie continued her great speed.  We are so happy that her confidence has picked up so much that she is running full speed.  That’s a problem sometimes as Mike is so far behind he can’t be there to help her know where to go in time.  But they’ll get it figured out.  Fixing teamwork is much easier than trying to “teach” speed.

Wazzu had fun in her Chances run….although she thought she had a much better idea for a good course than the judge.  Her second run was Jumpers and it came in the late afternoon….right in the middle of her nap time.  She did the course correctly but you could tell she was sleepy.  

What a good girl.  And how nice of everyone to give her such a big round of applause when she finishes.  Too bad she can't hear it.  But I can and I really appreciate it.

Debbie

Agility weekend

Had a three day trial in Boulder City, Nevada. We really enjoy this location for a trial. It's at a beautiful park complete with beautifully maintained baseball diamonds, soccer fields, man-made lake stocked with fish for fishing, trails in the desert, a skateboard park, a picnic area, an offleash dog park, and more!

The agility trial is held in the outfield of one of the baseball diamonds.  The grass is very lush and the fields totally flat and level since they are used for baseball.  As you can see, they have super duper lights - which we only had to use on Friday evening.

The grass had just been cut and the dogs loved eating it.  Fortunately, they only ate between runs.....I guess agility even tops fresh cut grass.

Here Boogie is picking up a big mouthful.

Good stuff!

Looks to me like he didn't quite finish....

Compared to other weekends, this one wasn't the best for our dogs on paper.  But they all ran really well and were running fast and with confidence.

Saturday, Sparkie had a beautiful Touch N Go run and earned her Versatility NATCH-19.

As always, there were skydivers right above us both days.  The weather was nice although it felt warmer than the thermometer showed.

I got to go out once each day so I chose to watch Chances since all four dogs do that run.  Between runs I asked Mike to bring Boogie over to see me.  (Wazzu was with me the entire time....sunbathing.)

I was so excited to see him.  All he did was watch for Mike.  Hmmm.  So here is the world from my view.

Finally when Mike came over, Boogie at least faced my direction....sort of.

Debbie

Movin' West

It was nice to leave the tolls and bumpy roads of Oklahoma. The following day we went through the "sticky uppy" part of Texas....it probably has a real name...and that's probably not it!  Then just squeaked into New Mexico for a night to a place called Tucumcari. The dogs didn't like it. If you went off the pavement it was just all stickers.

Then today we made it to Albuquerque. For the first time in almost a month, 2iggie and Boogie got to be off leash in the great outdoors.

There is a gate behind the RV park that leads to hundreds of acres of desert land. Mike took the two Monkeys (that would be 2iggie and Boogie) and let them run free in the desert. 2iggie stayed fairly close but ran and ran. Boogie headed for the ONE bush in the entire area and laid down underneath. I've never had a dog that gets hot so easily.

There was a little rise in the land and 2iggie went running over the knoll. By the time Mike got there, 2iggie was nowhere in sight. Mike called Boogie and as he got near Mike, he stopped and his nose started twitching, and then he took off like a shot.....right in the direction of 2iggie.  Mike gave him quite the treat when he got home to thank him for finding 2iggie.

Speaking of Boogie being fast. Here is his run in the Finals of the NADAC Championships. Out of 1,665 runs at the Championships, only 58 qualified as 100+ run indexes. Boogie had one of those.....it is in this run.

Since this was the last run of the Championships for our dogs, Mike decided he could suck up the pain in his knee and try to go for it. Here they are!  (If you click the four little arrows in the bottom right, it will play a full screen.  It seems a little blurry to me when you do this thought.)

Notice the great distance Boogie does too.

Here is Sparkie's run....she got 1st place in this run.

Debbie

Visit

Mike had another really nice visit with his Dad today. We were both extremely grateful that he was so kind to make the trip out to see us.

Mike made a nice pancake breakfast for everyone this morning before his dad had to head back home.

Bob was never lonely while visiting us. It seems like he had at least one dog visiting him at all times.

Slugger loves all people and was elated that someone came to visit him.

And Sparkie loved lying next to (okay, on) Bob. Until the phone started buzzing in Bob's pocket. I think Sparkie thought her insides were vibrating. She kept cocking her head back and forth. It really was quite cute.

We were sad to see Bob leave but were truly happy he came to visit. It's always very special when we get to see him.

Debbie

Ole Super Schnoz

(Arlington, WA)  Ole Super Schnoz is the latest name given to Boogie by his breeder.  I'm so proud of that name.

Today we drove over an hour to get to the Odor Recognition Test (ORT) - birch scent.  The dogs have three minutes to go into a building and search through two long rows of boxes (using their nose of course) to find the box that has the small tip of a Q-Tip dipped in birch oil.

The dogs have three minutes to find and indicate the correct box.  The handler must indicate "Alert", then the judge lets you know if you're correct.

We lined up, I listened to the instructions (while Boogie tried to so hard to be patient), and then I gave Boogie the Search command.  Remember, we need to hurry as we only have three minutes.  Off we go.  ALERT!  Yes, says the judge.  Time:  10.35 seconds.  Ole Super Schnoz is born.  That's my boy.

Unfortunately, there are no awards, no certificates, no nothing.  So I have no picture to show you.  But take my word for it - we were awesome.

So a two and a half hour drive for 10.35 seconds.  What we do for our dogs.

Before going to the ORT we had a fun day.  I actually caught Wazzu walking around instead of lying down.....

....oops. Down she goes.  Guess she doesn't want to be found.

We had the most pleasant surprise today. Shari, Slick, and Ozzie came to play!

All the dogs get along well but it is most special for Wazzu as these are her true buddies from way back. And play they did!

Look! Wazzu is playing! She loves Slick.

And Ozzie too! Looks like a black dog party.

The three amigos. I love it when Wazzu does these huge play bows.

Here they are flirting with each other. Wazzu only does that with two dogs in the whole world.

They look like happy bookends.  What a super great playtime it was.

Slugger isn't in to all this playing so much. He much prefers to just watch over the property...

....or sniff the air.

If there was a sunbathing contest for dogs, Slugger could win. He'll do it for hours.

Since we don't live in the house, there is no way I'm going to spend time or money decorating. So I walk in the house today only to find I have a decoration on the bookshelf!

What the heck was he doing. No one else was in the house. He was just sitting there like a statue.

This little guy just never stops entertaining.

Debbie
9/23/10

Smash

(Arlington, WA) Meet Farmer Mike. With five acres to take care of, Mike is becoming a farmer whether he likes it or not! He won't say so but I think he is enjoying it. He is doing a great job, working from morning until night. The dogs and I are extremely appreciative of all his efforts.

After getting all the rocks picked up, the field was still very "fluffy" and rough. So Mike rented a roller to smash down the ground.

The rental company brought it over and gave Mike a 60 second lesson.

Then it was off to work!

In addition to rolling, the machine vibrates to help pack down the ground. Mike thought that part was fun. But he mentioned many times that it was really hurting his back.

Not sure if you can tell from the pictures but this thing is HUGE!

And it sure did flatten the ground.

I was glad Mike thought it was fun as it took him the better part of two days. First he rolled the entire pasture. Then he spread grass seed over the entire area. Once again, he then rolled the entire area one more time.

This is what it looked like when he was done. Not sure if you can tell or not but there is a small brown dot in the field. That is Slugger just sitting there watching....who knows what.

At one point during the week, Mike walked around the yard trying to get out as many of the roots sticking out of the ground that he could. The dogs really enjoyed this activity and did their best to help.

Tugging

Pulling

Eating

I haven't seen much animal life since we moved in. I've heard a lot of squirrels - as have the dogs. But the one thing there is no shortage of are huge spiders and their webs.

I hate spiders! They are making these webs everywhere. Mike won't knock them down as he loves to see how big they'll get and see what they catch. Great.

Amazing how I didn't see any birds around here until Mike spread grass seed. It was like a seed alert was sent out around the city. Suddenly we had birds everywhere. The dogs tried to chase them for a while but gave up as they were totally outnumbered.

The only other thing I saw was a dragonfly. Fortunately he landed as I was having a heck of a time trying to get a picture while he was flying.

But the highlight of my sightings was the pileated woodpecker.  He sure takes a big wind up before banging into the wood.

It was really interesting to see how big a holes he could make.

Speaking of wildlife, 2iggie had a great day today. She caught a mouse, a mole and a platypus. I saw her doing something under the deck that looked unusual. I called her and she brought me a mouse. Great....not!

Shortly after that she took Mike a mole! Yes! Catch all those you want little girl.

In all fairness, she had help with the platypus. Boogie actually caught it....2iggie just killed it. Here it is before its death.

Mike was working in the "basement" - the bins under the RV - and Boogie crawled in, hunted through a big bag full of toys and pulled out the platypus. It didn't last long once 2iggie got a hold of it.

Wazzu doesn't kill animals. I watched her for quite some time today as she was trying to make friends with a mole. She was so patient as it slowly came up and peaked out then dashed back down...over and over.  You can see the little mound of dirt just starting.

The dogs didn't really know what was going on but they knew their daddy was doing lots of digging and pulling so they seemed to want to try as well.

Every time we go outside the dogs dig under this bush. There has got to be someone under there.

I have a picture of each dog under this bush. I can't imagine what is so interesting under there but it must be something good.

Today was the first day that 2iggie discovered the forest. She darted into the forest and was there about 20 minutes before Mike went to find her. She came out sopping wet.

The forest is too dense for people to get through....it's even hard for the dogs to get through. But Mike did cut a path all along the fence line. The fence is on the left side of the pictures.

Of course the days can't be all work....at least not for the dogs.

Sometimes you just gotta take a break.

How does she sleep with her head up?

2iggie

Sparkie

Doesn't he look so grown up?

Wazzu

Slugger

Great few days here at Flapdoodle Farm.

Debbie
9/20-22/10