Five

Five QQ's.  That's what we are down to (well, that and 54 points but we'll get that just getting the 5 QQ's).  It's a little surreal to me that we are that close.  But I guess it's good that it doesn't seem real because as it is, I get so nervous every time we're running for a QQ!

So, yes, obviously today was better.  Legend did all the contact equipment like she's never had any problem at all.  I'm happy about that, but baffled.  We're still going to work on it though-can't take any chances. 

Lyric did better, went further up the teeter but not all the way, also had a refusal at the table.  Then we managed to somehow NQ in jumpers again without knowing what went wrong.  I was pretty sure I saw the judge's hand go up during our run so at least it wasn't a total shock when I picked up my scribe sheet.  And I know roughly where on the course it was.  But still, I guess I need to pay closer attention.  I guess Lyric wants this to be Legend's year!

I'm mailing Legend's entry for NADAC nationals tomorrow.  Technicallly we don't have all the points but hopefully enough to still get in!  Now, time to rest.

Issues

We are in the midst of the 3 day trial in STL this weekend.  And if you can't guess by the post title it's not going that great.  Both dogs have developed some aversion to contact equipment apparently.

Lyric has become increasingly concerned about teeters the last few trials and this weekend won't do the teeter at all (well, she gets on but only takes a couple steps and jumps off) and subsequently is afraid that the other contacts are also teeters and is getting refusals at those before going up.  Her jumpers runs have been fair-missed a weave pole yesterday and today must have gone around a jump.  I didn't know it until I picked up my scribe sheet though so at least it was a "mental" Q.  Sure thought it was a clean run!

Legend performed her random refusal of the a-frame yesterday and threw in a teeter refusal as well.  She refused the teeter again today but did the a-frame fine??  What drives me so insane is that the always does everything the second time.  Why can't she just do it the first time?  And why, after 4 years of trialing does she do it at all?  And, no she's not injured in any way that I can tell.  Just crazy.  So my plan is to keep working hard on contacts with them at home and also to take them to some other places to work contacts.  We had such a good first 6 months of the year and now she's doing weird stuff and running a little slower-it's always something with dogs huh?  She has gotten 2 jumpers Q's though.  Maybe tomorrow is our QQ day.

Stormy is getting lots of lookers but no takers yet.  She's being very well behaved though-I'm so proud of her.

Two years

Where does the time go? I sure miss this guy. It takes all three of the dogs we have now to "replace" him.

Consumed

This weekend was our club's NADAC trial and so, being on the trial committee, I spent a lot of extra time helping with set-up, tear down, working, etc.  In addition to doing 19 runs with my dogs.

But overall we had a pretty good trial.  Yesterday Legend picked up an elite regular, a novice touch and go (yep still in novice, but getting there) and most exciting-her very first elite chances Q.  Now I know she can actually do it.  After today's attempt though I was more humbled and know we need still more practice.  Lyric got an elite regular, novice touch and go and finished her open jumpers title! 

This morning I convinced Jerry to run Legend in tunnelers-we already have our title and don't need any tunnelers points for nationals so it would give me one less run to do!  They did a great job-he never handles or trains the dogs, he even had to learn about front crosses during walk throughs!  They were clean but a hair over time-not too shabby for elite!  Legend picked up another regular leg and then her first elite weavers leg.  Lyric finished her Elite Regular title today and was a few seconds over time in her other regular run.  I decided to take a chance and move her up to elite jumpers today.  Jumpers was the last even in a long hot weekend and I knew it would be hard for her to make time but I pushed as hard as I could and she ended up only 1/2 second over time on a 22 obstacle course.  She'll get it eventually-tried so hard for me today.

And, Legend refused the dogwalk twice out of something like 6 attempts.  It seems to be when she doesn't have much momentum going-as in the beginning of the course.  I think I may give her shorter (but obviously not unsafe) approaches at home to show that she really can do it even when she's not at full speed.  Of course if I could get her started faster that would help too but I've never been all that successful in getting her to do that.  We take what we can get and fix what we can fix I guess. Why do dogs always give us something to work on?  They think they don't get enough treats and need to find things for us to practice with them?

Now it's time to relax and get ready for 3 days of AKC next weekend! I hope to catch up on everyone's blog this week-I haven't read any since we went on vacation!

Hawaii!

We started our vacation on the Big Island which we did not visit last time.  I was curious as to how I would like it because unlike Oahu it's not known for it's traditional white sand beaches.  But after spending several days there I found it to be my favorite island so far.  I found the rocky coastlines and rugged cliffs to be, in some ways, much more striking than the quiet, sandy beaches.  They are not great for swimming but if you want to sight-see and hike they are perfect.  The more laid back, quieter lifestyle was a little more my speed than the hustle and bustle of Waikiki. 

We stayed in Kona, and our hotel ended up being super convenient.  We were able to walk to all the little shops and restaurants along the coast line, as well as the pier and the neighboring hotel had a small beach in a little cove.  The Kona coast only gets 10 inches of rain a year and the weather is nearly always perfect so a lot of the restaurants are open air-no windows, sometimes no doors, even when they are closed, if you really wanted to you could just climb in!  This was great for me because the a/c in most restaurants during the summer freezes me out!

Here are some views from around Kona...

Of course we had to go to Volcano National Park, but unfortunately there was no active lava flow to view while we were there.  But still we saw and did some cool stuff.

We passes this on the way there-lucky cows!  There is no fence along the ocean-I guess there is not much concern the cows will swim away.

Kilauea

 We took a hike that led us through the middle of Kilauea Iki Crater-the lava we walked on was still cooling from a 1959 eruption.  I'm not sure how much you could really tell it was still warm  given that we were walking across black surface in direct sun-it was going to be hot anyway! The light colored pathway is the trail.

 These are plants growing in the cracks where the lava folded, broke, or collapsed on itself.

 A pile of lava.  See the steam on the left-there were steam vents all over the place, they smoke like that constantly. 

We stopped at Whittington park on the way to see the volcanoes.  It was a worthy stop-very beautiful.

This is not a sign we see in Missouri!

We spent a morning driving up to Pololu Valley lookout.  It's really pretty from the top but there is a trail that takes you to the bottom-if you go here, don't skip the trail!  It's totally worth it for the additional views you get and the black sand beach and view of the valley you get at the bottom.  There are a lot of scary signs about dangerous cliffs and falling rock but just ignore these.

From the top

 On the way down

 At the bottom

We then spent the afternoon at Hapuna Beach.  The sand here is imported from Australia (there are few or maybe even zero natural white sand beaches on the Big Island), but really, who cares?

The next day we spent seeing more sights around the island including the highly recommended Akaka Falls.  While it was a big waterfall, I didn't really think it was the most spectacular waterfall I have ever seen.  Not sure it lived up to all the hype.

We also went to Rainbow Falls, but we were there at the wrong time to see the rainbows.

 This was just a cool tree we saw while we were there

On the way to these places we stopped at Laupahoehoe.  I thought this was one of the most beautiful places we went to and it was barely mentioned in any of our travel maps.  We only stopped because there was one picture posted and I thought it looked cool.  But really after being there, no picture really does it justice.  But here are some that try!

We made another quick stop at Onomea Bay

And at Kolekole Beach Park

We also stopped at a Black Sand Beach and saw this guy

 And finally, we got this cool photo driving back to the hotel one evening.



Then we spent a few days on Oahu.  There were a few things we didn't get to the there the first time around like Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center.  While here, we splurged and stayed at the Hilton-it was really nice, but really big.  You probably need to spend a lot of time actually at the resort (we did spend about a day and a half just hanging out at the beach and pools there) to get your money's worth but it was fun to do at least once!

Some of the views around the hotel...

 Yes, we were surprised to see Penguins in Hawaii.  I think they were called African Penguins-they seemed to like the warm weather. 

Part of the island tour we took make a brief stop at Sunset Beach.  We actually spend a day here on our honeymoon but this time the highlight was getting to see an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal hanging out on the beach.

Our last day we spent at Kailua and Lanikai beaches to snorkel and relax on the beach and hopefully see Sea Turtles.  I didn't think the snorkeling was as good as it was in Maui-the water seemed rougher and not as clear.  It might be better if you go further out but I wasn't willing to that far out.  We did see some turtle and Jerry swam really close to one-he got pictures with the underwater camera but we don't have those yet-it has film!  We actually have to develop them!