Look at these cuties

Jerry took these while I was gone the other day. What sweeties!

Last night we gathered at a friend's house for pizza, cake, games and a birthday celebration. We had a great time and even to to witness an exciting event. While Kennedy was showing off how well she can stand on her own she decided to take her first step! It was too bad her dad missed it but we were all so excited to witness it!

Today was cleaning day. Well grocery day too. But after we did the shopping it was back to laundry, cleaning out the cars and bathing the dogs. We got in some training too. Lyric is running through the tunnel with so much confidence now I started to put a bend in it-didn't faze her at all. And today she did the teeter without my slowing down the fall. Legend's weave pole proofing did not go well. She seemed totally unable to weave 6 poles while I stand behind. We finally did have some success but not before we were both frustrated. But I think this work will really make her trial performance more consistent-I want her to really be able to do them independently. Zodiac continues to make progress in utility.

Six one way...

When we first got Trip he was quiet all night. Notice I did not say he slept through the night because he did not. He apparently would wake up, pee in his crate and to back to sleep. This is not ideal but it did allow me to sleep all night. Now he's the opposite. He's barking to be let out multiple times a night. I can see getting up once, but really-every few hours? That gets a little old considering there were some night he did not pee in his crate so I know he can do it. So this is also not ideal but a good step for him. The boy just seems to have no desire to "hold it." He'll pretty much go anytime, anywhere. So although I'm glad he's starting to let me know he wants out of his crate, at some point he's going to have to learn some self-control. I know he's a baby, but all the other puppies seemed to catch on a little faster.

I worked the last three days at a clinic a good ways away which entailed early mornings and long days. The dogs are apparently used to my being home more and did not appreciate being crated all day and then my having no energy to play at night-can't they just watch the Olympics too? They have also been very needy lately. I don't know what's up with that but they all want to be in my lap.

I know this picture looks a lot like the others but I don't think this one has been posted yet. It's not recent-we don't have snow anymore.

What you've all been waiting for...

OK, so maybe you have not all been waiting for this, but some of you have....

Pictures of Lyric doing agility-isn't she too cute? She's coming along great for the little time I've been able to spend with her.

This is not her top dogwalk speed but I was handling the dog and using the camera so I think she was a little confused.

And here are some more pics of Trip-I need to have some of these posted on the MOKAN website since he's growing like a weed. I wish he was catching on to house-breaking as fast as he was growing but he's not. Oh well, just need some patience I guess.

Here's a shot of Legend working obedience. I don't have many pics of her doing obedience, maybe because she got asked to leave the ring so much! Hopefully that's all behind her now!

And my handsome boy getting some one on one time after his utility practice. He's such a fun dog, it's too bad his agility career was cut short. But I guess that did motivate us to focus on utility, and when the weather is better-tracking.

So handsome!

Also, once a month I do a veterinary topic for the Dogs on Thursday blog, which I also usually post here-any suggestions for topics?

Not Quite

Legend and I are back from another weekend of agility. Although it was not a bad weekend it was not quite as good as last weekend. Yesterday there was a hard entry into the weave poles in standard. The temptation was to go up the dogwalk and even though I barely managed to stop that she ended up entering the weave poles at such a hard angle she couldn't get bent around to make the second pole. Then she bailed on the teeter again. Whatever. I can't predict that one. She seemed a little stressed in jumpers and was really dragging her feet. We got a Q but with only 1 point to show for it. Today she was having a super great standard run. She was happy, fast and relaxed. And missed the perfectly straight, on-side weave entry. Grrr. I thought the jumpers course today looked like a lot of fun and was hoping it would be a good run for us since she was so relaxed in standard. But she was again a bit stressed and running slow. Faster than yesterday but still slow. Then I must have pulled her off a jump-I totally didn't see it but I saw the judge. And she didn't do the poles right. So not a whole lot to show for all our work this weekend but we are definitely working weave poles between now and the next trial!

I forgot

There was one more important thing that happened at the trial last weekend-Peyton's mom brought her by for a visit. My little girl is all grown up and sooo pretty! She's very petite-smaller than Legend but just as cute and as spoiled as can be. She had a good time at the trial and her mom might even have been inspired to start her in agility training!

This is a video from this morning of Trip and Zodiac playing. He can be so good with puppies if he wants to be. Earlier today they were "tugging" which means Zodiac was basically just holding the toy while Trip tugged. When Trip tries to tug with Legend he just gets flipped around and the toy ripped out of his face.

It's been nice enough the last few days to train outside. This gave me a chance to work some full size go-outs with Zodiac which went well. He also did some nice signals outside-they were not perfect as he was anticipating but that's better than not paying attention which is what usually happens outside. Legend got to work on some open exercises and on some agility skills. We are practicing NOT popping out of the weave poles. We also worked on doing some crosses at the teeter. I realized as I was walking the courses this weekend I don't have much confidence in crossing there. Probably because of her teeter issues that occasionally pop up. But this practice was good for us, made her work the teeter more independently.

Lyric is doing great. She loves the dogwalk and the A-frame the best I think. She's getting more confidence with the jump and even did a sequence of two jumps today. She has no problem getting on the table-although I'm not sure I have it at the right height for her. I was able to send her through the tunnel a few times today instead of calling her through but she hasn't quite caught on to tire run-bys. Since she has so much confidence on the other contact equipment I let her walk over the teeter once. She was totally unfazed by the fact that it moved. She also ran through the barrel of the chute and started the broad jump. We are also working on those annoying weave poles.

Tomorrow we are headed out for another trial-hopefully with more Qs!

Growing!

I took Trip in for some vaccine boosters today. He's grown about 2.5 lbs since we have had him! I knew he was growing but that's quite a bit in the short time we've had him. And he's still just a bundle of energy. He's a strong tugger, loves to run and is getting better at fetch. He plays with all the the dogs now but mostly Lyric and Zodiac.

While I was at the clinic I picked up Zodiac's bloodwork which was normal so everyone got a good report this week.

It's really cold today and I have the horse shoer coming this afternoon. I'm not looking forward to standing out in the barn holding Squirt in the cold but not much I can do to get out of it! I think I'll bring the space heater out with me. No more exciting news for today. Just catching up on laundry-fun.

The rest of the weekend

Well Legend finished off the weekend with another great day. She had an off course and popped out of the weaves in standard but was running with a lot of enthusiasm. Then she had a great run in jumpers and scored MXJ leg #8. Then we had a very long trip back with intermittent snow and traffic. I thought we'd never get back but we did finally arrive safely. I'm glad we had today to relax and unpack.

Quick update

Things are going great here in Lawrence. Legend has gotten 3 of 4 Qs so far. Yesterday she got her first double Q and today she added another standard leg. We would have had another double but she missed the weave pole entrance. I'm so pleased with her though-she seems to be becoming much more consistent. And we think we got Cheri's foster dog adopted. No takers on Trip yet. The girls are tired so we are resting up for what I hope is another good day tomorrow!

Agility weekend!

Tomorrow evening Legend, Lyric, and I are headed out to Lawrence for 3 days of agility. Lyric is tagging along for the "dog show experience" and of course to work on building her fan base! We are also having a MOKAN booth at the trial and although Trip won't be coming with us I made this flyer to post at the booth-what do you think? Will it get him adopted?

And for fun-here is an "old time" picture of Moses.

Wish us luck! I'm sure I'll update some from the road as well. Especially if it's good news!

Late night photoshop

Ok. So it's not that late but since Jerrry's already in bed and I'm still up it feels late. Anyway Border Collie Mom inspired me to start playing around with photoshop. When blurring the background I have always selected an entire object and then blurred everything else but she game me an idea of blurring a circular area instead. So here's what I did.

So you can see how some dog is blurred while some foreground is in focus-since it was in my oval selection. I'm not sure why I chose a brick frame-just different. I did think it was cool that I found a way to make my font actually black and white-clever huh. Anyway, that's it for now. I should maybe go to bed too.

Buddies?

Lyric and Trip have become quite good friends lately (she tried to eat him a few times the first day). At least I think they are. Sometimes Lyric seems to be having a really good time with him but other times I'm just not sure-she just stands there and lets him pull her hair. Anyway, it keeps him busy. I shot this video this morning. They had been playing for awhile so you can tell they are just starting to get a little tired. Ignore the out of control border collies in the background.

In other exciting news we let our propane run out overnight which made for a chilly morning in our house. Jerry noticed it was low but we didn't do anything about it in time. Apparently we were supposed to be checking it. In the past they have added some as needed but I guess we are not in that program anymore. And I didn't prepay for any extra this year so now we have a whole tank of high priced winter propane. Oh well, at least we are warm again.

Oh, and I am working a little too. Gotta pay for that propane you know!

Spring

Sort of. It's still snowing here-just a little but here are some picture of my big bunny, Spring. She has not been on the blog in a while but she's full grown and over 14 lbs Don't let that scare you though- she's really just a big, lazy, chicken rabbit!

Here she is on one of her short bursts of energy.

And a sweet bunny close-up!

I would go out and take more snowy pictures and play with the dogs but I've has a sore throat since Saturday so today I'm just puttering around the house. Since I can barely talk the dogs probably won't even train today. Lucky puppies.

Here is someone else who hasn't been on the blog in awhile! Friday night was game night at our house. Kennedy was the official dice roller for Scattegories.

She also tried to expand her responsibilities by helping Jerry with his answers!

Updates

The snow is still trying melt and the yard is a swamp-no playing out in the mud today! It did snow earlier today and looked very pretty but it didn't stay around long as it's above freezing. Yesterday was equally as dreary as today but with a greater variety of precipitation types.

Trip is sleeping through the night and didn't even pee in his kennel last night! He's also learning that he can play with toys while in his x-pen instead of screaming to be let out where he will play with the same exact toys in the living room.

We have been back to training inside so lots of obedience work. Legend is working on open and utility stuff and doing quite well. Zodiac continue to toil away at utility. He was doing great on articles and then yesterday just fell apart on the leather. Not sure what's up with that. We haven't tried yet today. I may let them air out a few more days. He's starting to get the idea that he should "go-out" until he reaches an obstacle-a wall, fence, whatever. I know he should probably "go-out" until I say "sit" but he's such an anticipator I thought associating it with physically needing to stop would be better and I just tell him to sit as he approaches the endpoint.

Lyric is working on proofing her stay. She also has a lightning fast recall-in a very controlled environment and is racing across the room to the target. So for the most part everything is going pretty well.

Zodiac got to get caught up on vaccines and bloodwork today and tonight they will all get birthday cake for dinner!

This afternoon I have been messing more with Photoshop. Here is a scrapbook page for Zodiac. I don't have a scrapbook but I was playing with some different features.
Here is Legend getting ready for the Superbowl. I couldn't decide if the pawprints make it too busy or not but ended up leaving them. It seemed ok.

And little Lyric running through the snow.

Now I better get some real work done!

Our snow here has been melting over the last few days. I'm glad I didn't have to travel in bad weather but I got home just in time to see the dirty, half melted snow. It refreezes at night which leaves it crusty and lumpy. The border collies don't mind so much but the little ones have a hard time getting around on it.

Speaking of little ones, Trip is doing well. He loves to play-he thinks all toys are great. He's already starting to tug and fetch. He would like to play with the other dogs but so far they are not too interested. Lyric especially does not like when he pulls her tail. I think he will definitely need a home that is going to be very active and experienced with herding breeds. But he did sleep through the night!

This morning was quite frosty and I took this picture of Moses overlooking "his domain."
This photo is from this morning as well, but doesn't really show any frost.

I neglected to mention that Monday was Zodiac's "birthday." He's 9, which we can hardly believe but the gray in his face will testify that it's true. I need to pick up a cake this week so we can have a little dog party!

Trip

This little guy is our new foster puppy, Trip. He and his mom are available through MOKAN BC Rescue. Mom is somewhat more traditionally marked black and white BC so we think Trip may have some cattle dog in him. He's quite a rambunctious little guy. I'm sure he will get adopted fast.

On Sunday I skipped out of the conference to take Zodiac to the local obedience trial where he got RAE leg #8. His performance was a little sloppy which kept us out of the ribbons but with respectable scores of 94 and 95. He was glad to get home and run in the yard with his sisters!