Levi

The original plan was to get another Danish-Swedish Farmdog next year, before or after I retire. But I’ve actually been talking to a quite wonderful collie breeder (who will remain nameless for the time being) who is breeding this year. I’m still looking around a bit, though, so nothing is in stone. But I would love to have a drivey collie to do sports with. Agility and obedience mainly. Tracking, Herding, Flyball, if possible.

I hope the Danish-Swedish Farmdog breeders will still consider me in the future, since I do want another. Probably in 2014 now. I do want to get another DSF while Jet is still young. He loves to play with the small dogs we meet.

So perhaps a collie puppy will join our house this year. I am looking forward to it. It may not work out, but you just never know. My wish would be to get a blue-headed white collie. White collies are beautiful, and very healthy. There are unhealthy white collies but they have two merle genes and can be born deaf and blind. A healthy white collie has two copies of the white gene, which are separate from the merle gene. But I may end up with a blue or a tri. It all depends on what is born and who is right for me. I do want another smooth. I just don’t like all the hair!

So we may get back up to six dogs before we go down to five again. Loosing Levi will hurt very, very much.

Jet is almost three. Tatum is almost six. Muffit is about 7 and Chase is 8.5. So really I’d be okay taking another puppy training on. Chase may have another year left, but perhaps not much more than that. Muffit I don’t train, he’s my husband’s hiking dog. Tatum I train only occasionally. Jet is my main training and competing dog. So adding another dog for competition would be just fine.

I’d show a collie in conformation, too. Why not. Done it before, and I do love that Levi has his championship. So I will need to retire… because I have to much I want to do!

But Saturday we kicked it into gear and kicked but and got Jet’s 4th Double Q. He also Qualified in Time to Beat which was fun. Sunday again we had a blast and got Jet’s Fifth QQ. And isn’t QQ just fun as heck to type! I think so! QQ QQ QQ QQ QQ… Hey I can do that, it’s the first QQs, I’ve ever had IN MY LIFE after 8 years of agility so *happy dances*.

Jet’s first agility trial was February 2011. So to start in Novice then and come out 365 days later with Five Double Qs and 114 Speed Points, I just cannot be happier!

Here’s some of his runs.

I didn’t get them all on video but that’s okay. Getting any at all is just fun. I just adore running him, Q or no Q. He’s not super fast, he took 4th place 3 out of the 4 runs… took 1st place only one run where the super fast dogs didn’t Q. But that’s fine with me. I am not into placements, I’m into QQs!

Here’s one of Tatum’s runs. She did great in her JWW run but this Standard run she kinda pooped out again. She was only entered on Saturday.

Dang now back to work. And it appears theme on my blog broke so I had to rebuild it a little bit but I don’t have time to find a new theme right now, so just doing with this old one for a bit. Maybe to fix my darn blog I need some web conferencing services or something. Dangit I hate it when I log in and it’s just a blank screen. Don’t do that to me!

Only Tatum and Jet went. I’m still not taking Levi. I don’t know, his park days may be over… we’ll see. But every day he seems a little bit worse. His poor old body just can’t repair itself anymore. Makes me very, very sad.

Tatum

Tatum and Jet

Blue Skies

Tatum and Jet

Playing

Why not take Muffit or Chase? Well, Chase isn’t dog friendly at all. He’s actually pretty dog aggressive. And Muffit goes hiking with my husband so much, that I don’t take him out myself. He’s my husband’s hiking companion.

Levi and Tatum

He’s going to K9 Nosework Class again at our local training center, Calling All Dogs. He just loves it. I was worried about his first class, wondering if he’d hurt the next day. And if he did, I would have taken Jet or Tatum instead. But no sign of Levi hurting the next day, so I’ll take him back again. He does love it, and I really want to spend time with my old 12 year old boy.

He practically needs a medication cart for all the supplements he’s on. But I think they are helping. And the acupuncture helps too. So he’s rather expensive for us now, but he’s worth every penny. The last three or four days he’s been grumpier at the other dogs. And I think it’s because he’s feeling better. I guess it could be because he’s feeling worse, but usually he’s grumpy when he feels good, so who knows.

He’s my boy, and I’m glad he’s doing okay.

Playing in the Snow

Dang, that’s a lot to be unsure about. LOL. I go back and forth from day to day thinking he’ll get it, to he won’t get it. I guess going in the ring is the test. It’ll be kinda fun, I think. And why the heck not.

I’m putting Jet in Beginner Novice. Which is all on leash, so I think he’ll be okay. Though I still think he’ll get nervous and I don’t know what to really do about that. I’ve been working on keeping him happy and playing games, but the ring… well, we have an ASCA obedience trial in Feb and I can get him in Rent A Ring again, so hopefully that’ll help. It’s at the same time as agility so that’ll be interesting to see how he does.

So anyway, that’s the plan for March obedience wise. I hope I can relax when I go. Maybe I need to look up the best ebook reader so I can sit and read in between. I love to read, it really does help me relax.

The Park

Levi, Chase and Jet have been doing more Cyber Rally. Levi got his first Q. Though every day I worry he’s just getting worse and worse, older and older. This park trip was a lot for him. I feel bad that he’s still not back to how he was before that darn party. Maybe he never will be. Breaks my heart.

Chase got his second Cyber Rally Q, and Jet got his third, for a title. It’s been fun, and with the lack of snow and the weather in the 50s here in Utah, we’ve been able to get outside, which is nice.

I’ve been staying indoors a lot, though. Maybe I should look for some Sous Chef Jobs for something to do inside. But instead I sit on the chairs and watch TV or read. I do like to take it easy.

Swivl

Well, it’s finally here. This is not an ad post… it’s just something I found. I’ve been looking, forever it seems like, to find a device that will follow me with video while I’m doing agility, or rally, or training, or whatever. Looks like finally someone invented the darn thing! Swivl

I have one of those big Canon Video cameras, though, which this won’t work with. But I also have an Android phone, which it will work with. I wonder if the big clunky cameras are just on their way out, and most everyone will eventually switch to phones or tablets for video. That’s fine with me, though of course it’d be a bummer if I can’t sell my camera eventually. But someday I do want an iPad. I just can’t justify it now. I have my Macbook, and I have my Android phone, and I really can’t afford a tablet. Maybe some day. And I love using iMovie to make my videos on my Mac. And as ya’ll know, I take a zillion dog videos of sports and of training. Usually I put my camera on the tripod. But sometimes I just need the camera to follow me around, especially in a small place like training, or a far place like an agility trial. I quite often don’t have anyone with me to video. Or at agility trials, I get tired of begging people to video. So many people just hate to video! This would solve my problems!

It’s not out until 2012, and it’s $160, but I actually think that’s a pretty good price. I’d use it ALL the darn time! I’d like it to be able to keep me zoomed in, but it doesn’t do that yet. Maybe eventually. And I bet there will be more manufacturers out there making more types like this soon. They are marketing it for bloggers… or vloggers, I guess. But heck, they should market it to the darn dog sports crowd. I bet they’d get a lot of interested parties!

I registered up Jet, Tatum and Chase with Cyber Rally-O, you can check out their website: Cyber Rally-O Website. And they also have a Yahoo Group that I’ve joined, though I’ve gone Digest because I don’t keep up well with email lists.

The above video is Jet’s first Q. Woot! Three Qs for a title. I’ll need to pick some other courses and get them done, too. There are a couple of indoor training places here that I can rent and set them up. Nutshell: you set up the course and video and submit the entry. They tell you if you Q or not.

Some people may poo-poo it, saying well you can use treats and practice as much as you want before hand. But really, so what? I’ve always wanted do overs. And you still have to train everything first anyway. The dogs have to know how to heel and do all the exercises. You can’t lure them through with treats (that’s an NQ). And yes you can treat in stationary exercises. And if you have a reactive or shy dog that doesn’t do well at trials, this is awesome. Like I said, you still have to train for it, so I think it’s pretty cool.