Me, Tatum (the smooth sable collie) and Chase (The black Border collie) on a nature walk by the agility trial site in Brighton, Colorado.
May 2008Monthly Archives
Metal Dogs
Much of the agility equipment used in a competition nowadays is made from Metal. Welded, I think. We used to have a person who made it locally, some great equipment, but I think she is no longer making it. I want to buy a nice fold up weave poll base but she is no longer making them. My PVC weaves are just breaking up and really need to be replaced, they are about four years old now.
Another source of metal working and manipulation is rollform equipment. Very interesting how they roll out metal products. It’s an amazing industry and very interesting.
Maybe rollforming can be used for agility equipment! Though I think the metal forming process is, actually, a lot bigger than the small agility equipment we use in our trials. 
Marley the Springer
Well, Thursday before we went to Colorado for the USDAA trial in Brighton, Colorado… I got an email from Springer Rescue saying they needed a transport for a Springer to his new home in Boulder, Colorado.
And fortunately the driver of the Fun Bus is a Springer guy! He has two of his own. And we were able to get Mr Marley fit into the Fun Bus so we could take him with to his forever home in Colorado.
Marley was a bit nervous at first, and he really missed his foster Mom when she dropped him off at our house on Thursday night, but he was a trooper and when we got to the trial site he was doing really well, curious, and hardly seemed nervous. He was such a good boy. As soon as he was in our house, I feel in love with him. Such a sweet and handsome boy!
So now he is in his new home in Boulder, and I’m very happy for him! I’m glad we could help out.. and we didn’t even need any Phentermine 37.5 mg to keep us going on our trip.
Performance I Snooker Title
Well the USDAA trial in Colorado was fun. I had a great time. Chase and Tatum, as you can see, got to ride in the back of the Fun Bus. The crates are attached and there are four of them. And more crates stack on the top. It can carry about 8 people, but not quite that many when there are as many dogs. But it’s a nice setup, for sure!
Chase did great at the trial, too. He got his PK1 title, which is his Snooker Title in the Performance Class. I have him in Performance because I don’t really want him to jump 26″, which is what he’d jump in the regular. He’s 21.5″ at the shoulder, and the cut off is 21″. He’s just a half inch too tall. He jumps 20″ in AKC, and 26″ is, I think, a big difference. Maybe someday I’ll train him up to that height but… not sure if I want to take the time.
So anyway… Chase did great. He got a Pairs Leg on Saturday, thanks to a great partner named Ollie. And he also got his Snooker leg on Sunday. He would have had some more but… of course, me the Mum screwed up. The Standard leg on Sunday, I stopped at the end of the course and he knocked the last bar, looking back at me. Doh! Other than that it was a good run.
Chase now has the 3 PI snooker legs (and title), one Standard leg, and one pairs leg. I’m excited for June when we, hopefully, will get some more legs!
Both the Steeplechase and Grand Prix (both the Performance versions, I forget what they are called) were a lot of fun too and Chase did really well. We had a couple of off courses, though, so we didn’t qualify. But I am still learning to run him. I’ll probably always be learning to run him.
I had some great coaching and confidence building from the people I was there with, and I appreciate it greatly! I don’t think they even know how much it helped. I do lack confidence and I think I have an attitude where I’ll never really succeed… and I need to get rid of that and get a more successful frame of mind. Chase is a great, fast dog and he has a lot of potential!
He did tunnel suck a couple times, but that is a training issue and we will be working on that. I have a tunnel and weaves and some jumps, so I’ll be breaking those out in the yard and practicing, too.
I have some more pictures, just of us, not really of the trial, but I’ll get them up in a while. Now.. I’m tired, and it’s time to veg and watch TV. 
Travel and Pet Insurance
I travel with the dogs a lot. Most of the time I seem to drive myself with the dogs, but lately I’ve been travelling a lot with other people as well. And sometimes, as much as I even hate the thought, I know that it’s possible for one of the dogs to get hurt.
My husband and I have considered getting pet insurance for our dogs but we haven’t yet. It seems very complicated and expensive. Especially since we have the six dogs now.
There is a site through Money.co.uk that makes finding pet insurance much easier. And they also give you a took to compare credit cards, too. But their Pet Insurance page is very helpful.
You can select a number of different pet insurances and compare them against each other in order to find the best one for you and your animal family. The online form gives a great deal of information, including provider type, whether they offer an online discount, cost quotes, claims information, and more. When I look at all the different types of things the site compares, I keep scrolling down on the page because there is a lot, and it can really help out in deciding which pet insurance company is best for us.
So if you are interested in finding a good pet insurance, and you want to be able to see your choices, you might want to check out Money.co.uk.
We Are Back from CO
Well, Chase, Tatum and I are back from doing USDAA in Colorado. I’ll post more about it later and get some pictures up after I get them off the camera. USDAA is complicated but I’m starting to figure it out, and will understand more as I go up in the levels.
Tatum got pretty stressed and wandered off through one of the courses! Dangit! A friend had his dog at the start line, though, and he was understanding thank goodness! Tatum was looking for her crate, and went into Scaredey Dog Mode and wouldn’t let anyone get close to her. But she followed me to our crating area and went right into her crate so that was good.
The drive was much too long… 10 hours. Even if it had been 7 or 8 it still would have been long and tiring. I’m not going to travel again until June, and that’s to St George Utah, only four hours away, for flyball. It’ll be nice to just be home for a while!
Chase got to swim, and got some legs, and I’ll post about them in a bit!
Goin’ to Colorado for USDAA
Well, bright and early tomorrow morning, Friday May 9th, I’m going to be on the way to Colorado, Brighton to be exact, for a USDAA trial. I’m being picked up at about 5:15 am. Ugh. I do not like early! The driver wants to be there before business closes on Friday so I’ll be going with. It’ll be super nice to drive with these guys, though, and not have to drive myself. There will be three humans and an odd assortment of dogs in the van.
We are not allowed to roll.. last time I was in a van going to Colorado for a dog show was with Lucy, back about 6 years ago. It was a snow storm and we rolled. The driver (not me) was going too fast in the snow. Not even sure why I was in that vehicle in snow. But this driver is safer and there is no snow, so we should be fine! Though I admit I’m a touch nervous.
I’m bringing Chase and Tatum. Chase is running, Tatum will go for socialization. Levi will be jealous, I’m sure, but he’ll be happy to see me when I get home.
I won’t have much time to blog again until Monday. I am giving training at work today, and helping with training, so am not on the laptop much. And at lunch my friend spilled her drink… oops! We needed floor mops to clean up, but someone came and cleaned up for us.
So off I go! Wish me and Chase luck!
What Is Qassia?
Well, it appears to be a site based one, what they call, ‘Intel’. Intel, aside from being short for Intelligence, seems to be their what they call articles of interest. Or articles people write that may be interesting and informative.
It’s kinda like Wikipedia and Squidoo, but a bit different. People rate your articles… your Intel, to determine what sort of value it has. No one else can edit your Intel, which I like. And, you can display you own Google AdSense on your Intel pages, and you get 100% of all the revenue from the clicks.
I’m going to check it out. All informative web sites need lots of good dog training articles, right? So I’m going to go and add some Intel.. if you click on my profile link:
You can check out the Intel I will..errr, have yet to, post. And if you sign up through my link, I get something called Qassia cash… points, I guess, though I’m not sure what that’ll get me yet!
Maybe I can set up some Intel on audio racks.. too, but I’ll have to learn about them first.
Edit:
Here is my first Intel.. it’s about Clicker Training! I hope it’s good!
