July 2009Monthly Archives

How To Get an ARBA Championship

Okay so I’m trying to read up online and understand how the ARBA championship program works. ARBA is the American Rare Breed Association. Jet, being a Danish Swedish Farmdog, is a registrable breed in ARBA. And he’s pure bred so I’d really like to see if I can get an ARBA Championship on him. And I also hope to take him back to Sweden sometime and show him there, as well.

Jet

So I’ve been Googling and reading the ARBA website to try to understand how it works. AKC is pretty straight forward… you need 15 points to get your championship. And you have to have 2 major wins. A Major is.. errr.. I think 3 or 4 points in the show. I forget, it’s been a while. Levi got all his points by the time he was 18 months old. Including the majors. He is a good lookin’ boy.

So instead of Green shopping I’m looking for ARBA CH information. From what the ARBA website says, the dog needs to accumulate CAC-US Certificates. The dog can get one by being awarded an ‘Excellent’ rating at an ARBA show. I wonder if more than one dog can get this rating at the same show… or if only one can win like in AKC? Anyway, so it seems like if your dog gets 9 CAC-US certificates from 6 different judges, you can apply for, and get, the ARBA CH. Which is the American Rare Breed Association Championship.
From the ARBA Website:

To become an ARBA Champion, the following is required:

1. As of 1/1/98, Nine(9) CAC-US (Certificate of Aptitude for Championship in the United States) must be given from 6 different Judges to a dog whose breed is fully recognized by ARBA.

2. Classes that are divided by sex which a dog may be eligible to compete for CAC-US: 6-9 Months, 9-15 Months, Bred by Exhibitor, American Bred & Open.

3. Effectively July 1, 1999, the American Rare Breed Association will no longer offer the Breed Club Class as one of its classes for its shows.

4. Only ARBA Champions will be eligible for Best of Breed Class ARBA Jr. Champions are not eligible for the Best of Breed Class.

5. The first, second, third and fourth place dog in each class will receive a Rating. The dogs/bitches will be rated as one of the following: Excellent, Very Good, Satisfactory or Good. A first place dog or bitch must receive a rating of excellent to be eligible for a CAC-US and to compete in the winners class. In other words, if the first place dog is not rated by the Judge as excellent, it will not be able to compete in the winners class and won’t be eligible to receive a CAC-US. The CAC-US will be indicated on the judges sheet and accounted for by ARBA.

6. ARBA will notify you when you have attained all the requirements which qualifies your dog as an American Rare Breed Champion. You must then follow all the rules and regulations to receive your championship certificate. No dog will be officially an American Rare Breed Champion until the certificate of championship is issued.

I have heard it said that the ARBA DSF judges don’t really know the Danish Swedish Farmdog breed standard very well… so I don’t know how many Excellent they give out. If any. Unless they bring in a judge from over seas. So… as I live, I will learn, and find out how it all works! Took me a long time to understand AKC CH… and I still don’t really understand what goes beyond Winners Dog and Winners Bitch.

Cynthia

July 27, 2009

Jet

2 comments

Conformation, Farmdog, Jet

Stolta Ebbas Einride – Jet

Jet

So I’m glad to say I’ve been accepted to the Danish Swedish Farmdog Club of America! The people are really nice and helpful. I hope I can show Jet in conformation. Apparently the only club that does DSF conformation is ARBA.. the American Rare Breed Association. From their calendar, I’ve seen some shows listed in California and Colorado. I can do those… the drives would be long, but maybe I can fly. I really want Jet to be comfortable flying. Especially since it’s my hope to take him back to Sweden in a couple of years to show him in conformation there, and to meet his breeder and all his relatives!

I am hoping he will be a good kong chewer. I’ve been giving him kongs when I go off to work in the mornings so he has to work at getting the treats out. He still gets his regular food in a bowl, he’s young and he needs good nutrition for sure. He does like that freeze dried liver in the kong toys too. And I’m sure as he gets older he’ll get better at getting it out.

Once in a while he’ll chew on the corner of a pillow or something, but I trade him the pillow for a yummy bone and he is much happier.

It’s so wonderful having a puppy… a well bred well behaved well socialized puppy for a change! Every day I’m impressed at what a good boy he is. He’s even learning to sit before I pick him up.

I’m not going to start jump training or anything like that, any time soon. I might make some hoops, though, to get him going through hoops. Or just maybe the jump uprights too, so he’ll be loving agility by the time we can start the real fun training!

What’s Tatum Up To?

Tatum In Her Dog Bed

Well I haven’t posted much lately so I thought I’d give an update as to what Tatum has been doing lately!

She is a super girl, even though she’s not, and may never be, completely house trained. I still adore her. She is starting to play with Jet, but she is a bit rough with him and I’m afraid she’s going to step on him by accident. He is such a teeny boy in our big-dog house! So I watch them very closely. I’m sure once Jet is older he’ll be pushing Tatum around and will be able to rough house with her easily.

She is still doing some agility training, and some obedience. Since I have Jet now, he is getting most of my attention (he’s a puppy, and puppies get a lot of attention!) so Jet and Chase are my primary trainees now. Tatum will be trained as I have time. She’ll do agility, for sure, and maybe get a CD in obedience. Beyond that I don’t know what she’ll do, we’ll have to take her one training day at a time and see!

Friday mornings she’s been doing agility and she is starting to sequence obstacles. She isn’t afraid of any of them, which is awesome. Even the teeter that moves! And she loves the training too.

So as I get all my pictures saved to free online storage, I’ll be putting more up of her too. She is still a brat, and spoiled rotten, which is exactly how she should be.

Jet is a Wonderful Puppy!

Puppy Jet

Yup, it’s true, Jet is an amazingly wonderful boy. He zooms from room to room in the mornings after I get up… a bundle of energy. My other dogs have learned that mornings are not Mom’s favorite, so they kinda sleep and take a while to get going. Just like me. But Jet gets us up and about quickly and early! And, of course, I can’t resist how cute he is, so I have to play tug with him a bit, after I take him out to go potty.

He is completely house trained. I am so impressed. That’s what you get from a good breeder… instead of Tatum who lived in a yard with 50 other dogs and pooped and peed where she lived. And still now, after having her for two years almost, she will poop inside the house right next to the open dog door. Ugh! Oh well, that’s what tile is for.

I got a kiddie pool yesterday and took Jet out in it, I hope he will like the water! I think so. I am getting him used to the clicker. He came already knowing how to sit, too! So I’m doing basic sits, stands and downs with him with a click and a treat, he thinks that’s great fun.

And since he’s not a human kid, he doesn’t need acne treatment for his teenage years… boy I needed it when I was a teenager!

I’m also throwing a mat out and clicking him for stepping on it… I think he’s starting to get that, too. He is an amazingly smart boy. Before him, Chase was our smartest dog… but Jet might give Chase a run for his money in the brains department.

Jet was 9 pounds 11 ounces at the vet on Monday. And we measured the squiggly guy last night, and estimated he’s about 12″ at the shoulder. I’m thinking he’ll probably grow enough to jump 16″ in agility… but we’ll see!

Farmdog, Jet, Puppy

Retiring Levi…

The Pack

First off, this picture is of me sleeping on the dog shelf! LOL my husband made a nice comfy bed for the top of it, so me, Muffit and Chase piled on, while Lucy and Levi got the main part of the couch.

And now… Yeah, it’s hard to retire a dog isn’t it? It is sad because they are getting older. And I have tried to get more CDX legs on Levi, but he’s having a hard time so I think I’m going to retire him from obedience and be happy with our ASCA-CD and AKC-CD. Levi has given me his whole heart all his life, and I want him to live many more happy years and so I want to be careful about his body and make sure he is healthy.

I will still do some agility with him, though I won’t put him through weaves anymore. I think if he never had to do them again, he’d be happy! Maybe some Outer Banks travels we can go to… like camp, but we’ll see. I am going to try carting with him, a low impact slow sport that he’s never done before. But a friend of mine has a harness and cart we can borrow, and there is a draft trial this October that I really would love to enter him in.

He is slowing down, but he’s by no means so slow he can’t work, go to the park and camping, and have fun. He just didn’t get the best foundation training because 9 years ago I didn’t know what I was doing. Through the years I have learned a lot, and Levi has done so much. We’ve done conformation, obedience, herding, agility, camping, hiking, loving, and maybe carting. I love my Levi boy with all my heart.

My Puppy Is Here!

Is he a doll or what?! I adore him! He is an amazing little boy and he is fitting into our pack just perfectly. Chase and Levi get to stay separate from him for a little while. But so far, so good. Levi walks around grumping and growly but leaves Jet alone, and Chase is leaving Jet alone too. Jet wants to say hi to them but I don’t trust Levi or Chase yet so we are going to be safe and careful.

Lucy, Angel, Tatum and Muffit are great with Jet, as we expected. This video is of Muffit and Jet playing this morning. They are having a great time! So far Muffit is his best buddy. Tatum wants to play but hasn’t quite been playing with him yet. I want to have Jet play with only one dog at a time for a while so he doesn’t get hurt (he’s so little!) and so they learn to play nicely together.

I’m sure I’ll have lots more videos and pictures to share!

Marie and I were up for 22 hours yesterday… we got up at 2:30 am eastern time to get to our 6am flight… which we made perfectly. And we got home at 9pm and I didn’t get to bed until about 11 pm… so that was a long day. And I am done with flying for a while!

Marie also brought a wonderful little sheltie girl home! She’s from Tampa, the Himark sheltie kennel, and we got to play with her and have her wonderful company too!

Chasing Jet around will make it so that I won’t need any best weight loss supplements for a while! He sure is a chewer, and very active! I love him! He’s absolutely perfect, he has no flaws.. he is the perfect puppy. Today and tomorrow he gets to stay home, then he gets to start going out and experiencing the US!

Farmdog, Jet, Puppy

Testing From G1

okay i am testing a new app for my G1 phone as i want to be able to blog while I am on the trip to get my puppy. So here is a test picture of Tatum I hope this works!

We Leave In Three Days!!!

Tug!

I haven’t been thinking about it too much because I’m just too excited to be going to pick up my new puppy! We leave on Sunday and head to Tampa as our first stop. We’ll be checking out some Sheltie Puppies there and see if any are cute enough to take home too (lol okay we know they will be cute enough!). But it may not work out for my friend Marie but we’ll see how it goes.

Then we go and get Jet! I’m still leaning toward the name Jet and I’ve been calling him that even though he’s not around us yet. I am so excited to get a small dog, a dog with an excellent start, and a Danish Swedish Farmdog! He is going to love all the things we’ll do together! This picture is of him playing tug with another dog of the breeder’s pack. I love that he’s playing tug and I hope he will like to play with me so I can use it as a reward for training. It’s so nice when you can use tug as a reward!

So anyway, I don’t know if I’ll blog again before I go or not… but I’ll be posting to Facebook while I’m gone from my phone, so if you know me there you can follow me!

So hopefully I won’t need any cheap life insurance for this trip…. and it’ll all go well and the flights will be safe and secure and it’ll be a quick jaunt from here to there and back again. I will be back by next Tuesday evening, the 14th, with my new pup!