Reaping the Rewards

This week I got the chance to visit my former foster boy, Trip, and his mom.  As you can see he was very much beside himself!

Don't get me wrong, Trip very loves his new mama, but he is clearly still pretty fond of me too!

This is one of the great experiences of fostering.  As hard as it was to let this boy go, it was the right thing for everyone.  Trip leads a charmed life and is a successful agility dog.  Although he is a regular on the local AKC circuit, we haven't been doing much AKC lately so I visited him at home since his family lives just a few miles from my parents.

Not only do I get to remain a part of his life but I have become good friends with his mom.  She so much enjoys Trip that she has even fostered some dogs for Border Collie rescue herself including her long term "project" foster dog who is still looking for her perfect forever home now that Mary has done so much to bring her out of her shell and socialize her.

This is a great example of how fostering can change lives of so many for the better.  If you have not considered fostering, now is the time to think about it.  Many rescues are in desperate need of these priceless volunteers!

Product Review: Natural Balance Lamb & Rice Jerky Bars

This month Chewy.com gave us another chance to review a product.  This time I chose Natural Balance Jerky Bars.  

First of all, everyone-my three plus Cade-loved these.  No surprises there-my house is not known for picky eaters.  But, I have mostly good things to say about them too!  These are a good sized treat-if you give your dog a whole one it will take them at least a few bites to get them chewed up.  Which is nice, so that they actually taste the treat you took all that time to choose for them.  However, I tried giving a half piece to Lyric and she tried to eat it whole.  So if you have a small "gobbler" maybe don't give them a large piece.

These are great for training as well.  Unlike other jerky type treats they are not oily or greasy so they don't leave you feeling like you need to wash your hands all the time.  They also break easily into smaller chunks without much crumbling (like a freeze dried treat might).

These come in multiple flavors, all limited ingredient to keep your food sensitive pup happy. Lyric, who has had only minimal issues lately anyway, did fine with them.

Overall I think these are another winner!

Ready to go

I've ended up working more this week than I had planned and also started into a deep house cleaning so not much time to blog. But....Cade wanted me to tell you he's up on the petfinder site and ready to be adopted. He needs someone to keep working with him but I'm officially labeling him a performance prospect. 

Success on multiple levels

Our club NADAC trial was this weekend.  And despite all the work that entails, it was a huge success.  The girls ran great.  Legend went 7/12 with 2 Regular, 2 jumpers, 1 Tunnelers and 2 Chances. Yep-two chances!  That mean she has a chance to finish her NATCH at the one remaining trial we are going to this year-but she needs to Q both days.  She also finished her Outstanding Elite Chances title and her Superior Elite Jumpers title.  She refused no contact obstacles and took the A-frame twice as an off course.  Take what you can get right?

Lyric who does not often run more than 3-4 runs in a day went 6/10 picking up 2 Regular, 2 Jumpers, one Tunnelers, and 1 Touch N GO.  She is making a serious bid at the #1 Pom spot this year. She also finished her Open Touch N Go title.

Here is their haul for the weekend-complete with a toy for every Q, just one of the reasons our trial is awesome.

We also won a prize in our epic raffle although not one of the ones I really wanted.  And yes, I am the raffle coordinator and no, "epic" is not an understatement.

As far as the trial goes we had the best ever turnout, make the most profit, had a great judge and lots of new people as well as our regulars.  Judging by the number of people who begged for a second trial we think everyone had a lot of fun.

And Cade did great.  He was very relaxed, playing ball, tugging, doing tricks and wanting to be out of his crate.  He was also able to hang out outside the ring quietly while dogs were running.  But he is pretty intense when it comes to ball and treats-I think he has potential as a performance dog.  He will soon be listed on the website and petfinder as officially available.

I was tired and crabby at work today, but I suppose it was worth it!

Chicago

Between work, travel and preparing for our club agility trial I have been super busy.  Well, too busy to blog anyway.  But for our anniversary we took a short trip to chicago.  Other than road construction both ways we had a good time.  We ate.  A lot.  We went to the Taste of Chicago as it was going on while we were there and got to try lots of local foods.  All of which were good.  We also ate at some wonderful restauants as well as the Hershey store because, well, you can't NOT eat at the Hershey store. 

We explored some of the city parks and did some shoppping.  And lots of walking.  Lots. 

Apparently there are beaches in Chicago.  When we discovered this we made plans to make use of them.  The water is a little chilly, but the beach weather was perfect. 

We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  We were somewhat disappointed that is was more geared for kids, but it was ok. 

We also went to Navy Pier for shopping and fireworks and enjoyed an architecture tour cruise on the Chicago river.  We did not get to ride the ferris wheel as it was out of order.

But we did get to meet a former co-worker of mine and her husbnad for dinner and really enjoyed visiting with them and chatting about what life is like in the big city.  It's not for me, but it was a nice weekend. 

The Border Collie is coming out

It seems someone has either discovered or remembered that he loves to play ball...

This boy can get some serious air too-might have disc dog potential.

Well, we came home with something

But it wasn't a lot of Q's that's for sure.  And NO chances Q's which was the whole reason for the trip. So Legend still holds out at four and will not get her NATCH at home (well unless it's next year but let's hope it's before that!).  Anyway the only Q's we got were Lyric with two in jumpers and one in regular and Legend got one in jumpers.  She also got a "gift" Q in tunnelers after I ran the wrong course.  We were only entered in limited things but it was still a pretty dismal Q rate.

However-we ended up coming home with this...

Meet Cade, our new foster dog.  He was previously called Pepper but that didn't seem like a good border collie name to me so I changed it.  "Cade" is Irish/Welsh for "small battle" in case you wondered.  Although some of the details have been lost in translation the story is that his owner was moving, couldn't take him or find him a home and left him at the vet to be put to sleep.  The vet didn't, and instead neutered him and called the shelter.  The shelter was full and a volunteer took him from the vet to her home and somehow a friend of mine in the area was contacted.  Anyway she was able to get him evaluated and it all fell together for her to bring him to the trial for me to take home. So here he is.

The owner said he was 8 months old but he looks a little older than that so we are saying 12-18 months.  He's a super sweet boy-a real lover.  But he's kind of shy and nervous at first.  He copes well though and settled in at he agility trial after a few hours.  He was resting in his crate and able to come out and meet new dogs and people much quicker than we initially  expected.  He loves other dogs-he and Legend seem quite happy together.  He did well in the car and is doing well in the house. We will know more about him in  a few weeks. And yes, he does have a pretty terrible overbite!

Squirt

Our pasture is weedy, but makes for nice pictures. 

So that happened

Saturday we went and ran the Ozark Duck Waddle 5k. This year they had a dog division so I took Legend. We won, which was great. Last year I won my age group and the prize was a watermelon and a Rib Crib gift certificate. This year I won a watermelon and a massage gift certificate. Even better. Legend didn't get anything but I shared a pancake with her.  And let her swim in the "river." So that's the good part. 

After the race we noticed she was limping on a front leg. I attributed it to not training (too hot most nights to take dogs) and possibly a little arthritis. But later when she really seemed to be walking funny I checked her feet and found her pads all covered in sores and abrasions, likely from the hour she spent running on rocks in water at the creek Thursday-poor girl ran 3.1 miles on asphalt with ripped up feet! But to be fair, I had not seen her limp anytime between Thursday and Saturday, not even during the race. So now she's been on house arrest all week to get her feet healed up before this weekend's trial. So after no training and no exercise all week plus a long car ride she should be pretty rowdy come Friday!

How summer should be

Thursday it was about 100 degrees here.  So we spent the afternoon doing this.  I think Legend's greatest love in life is to play fetch in the water.  She doesn't care if she has to swim or just splash.  She loves it.  She was in the water so much she was actually shivering.  But if we stopped playing she whined and cried for more.  Crazy dog.