Long time...

No post!

On Remembrance day, a group of us dog nerds threw our dogs (and some tag-alongs) in our cars and headed up Cypress Mountain for a little doggy free-for-all in the fresh snow. It was miserable rainy at the bottome of the mountain but snowing big, beautiful white flakes up top.



That night was 7's agility class that runs Masters level courses. Not bad for the 18 month old Baby Dog!

As promised...

Here are some very sad pictures of 7 when he got home from his surgery. Being a dog with zero body fat, the drugs really hit him hard and he took quite a long time to recover.

Jazz sat near 7's crate for quite a while, it was pretty cute although I'm fairly sure he just wanted in the big comfy crate and didn't know why 7 should get all the attention.



At one point I heard some heavy breathing and snorting sounds coming from 7's recovery ward and saw this terribly pathetic but also too funny sight.

I actually had to opend the crate door and reposition his head to allow for more air flow.

The surgery got rescheduled for thursday (yesterday) as they had an emergency in the clinic on Wednesday morning that took precedence.
Today, I've been giving 7 some filled kongs to persuade him to stay *quietly* in his crate. This is apparently extremely unfair says Jazz and foster dog Reese. They believe they should be allowed stuffed kongs too, just for having to put up with their whiney brother!

I'm very happy with the job my vet did, I was able to be with 7 right up until he was fully under and they were about to put the tube down his throat. I had to leave for a hike with some client dogs otherwise I could have stayed for the whole procedure. His incision site is miniscule and so clean looking. There are no stitches to be seen as they are all under the skin and dissolvable. 7's empty "coin purse" is a pretty funny site flopping in the breeze and I do hope it goes away with time!

"Adios Amigos!"

My poor wee puppy is finally getting the big "snip snip." He's going in tomorrow and while I'm happy to be finally doing it, I'm also being a super worried wussie mummy about it. I just can't stand the thought of my big baby in surgery!
Wish him luck!


Of course, post surgery, super sad 7 pictures to come! (I can be so cruel!)

Dog Nerd Beach Party

So, with the stressful Super Dogs audition week over (with a few flyball lessons, 7 will be ready for the team next year!) we decided to take the whole gang down to Spanish Banks dog beach for a doggy beach party. We started out with 13 dogs, which dwindled to 10 when someone got too cold and had to go home (Love you Loic!)


This was our attempt at a group photo...

Unfortunately I think puppy Kepler *just* walked out of the shot as this was taken but, trust me, this is the best one I got!


We went at super low tide which makes it look like you can walk all the way back home.



Cooper was in heaven checking out all the tide pools (and there were a LOT)



Besides the usual suspects a couple new(ish) faces joined our party.

This is Angel, a senior German Shepherd and a complete sweety...


Here's...oh crap! I forgot his name! He's awfully cute though, his permanent wink is terribly endearing.


Beezer: "Yep, I'm surrounded..."


Kepler needed a couple pit stops along the way. Life is tiring when you're a baby!


Finally we found the real ocean...Ryan and 7 were overjoyed...




However, 7's joy quickly turned to sorrow when he realized..."ooh mommy, it's cold!"


The dogs who swam did so with gusto and were retrieving ball after ball until our arms got sore...




While everyone had a great time, I think it was the "Four Musketeers" who really squeezed every last drop of fun out of the adventure. I swear, every time we get these four together, they immediately take off on their own version of tag that will last for hours if we let it!

OMG...

Ack! 7's been invited to try out for the Super Dogs!!! I just got the message tonight from one of my agility instructors (who has 3 dogs in the Super Dogs) that they want me to come for three days and check out the show. I will help out backstage and have 7 join the practices between shows. If they like him they will let him try something out in the show...I am SO excited and nervous. I think his only real struggle will be with letting other people restrain him while I lead out super far away to direct him over the huge, mostly straight courses. He's had an issue with strangers wrapping their arms around him in a "flyball hold" and I haven't been very good about working him through it. Oh well, I can just hope that they won't mind going slow with him at first.

AAC 2010 Nationals!

Phew! It's all done and over with :-) Myself and the dogs are back at home and adjusting to normal life again. I already can't wait for next year's Regionals...hopefully the baby dog won't embarass his big brother! If all goes well throughout the year I think I will enter Jazz in Regionals again instead of retiring as was my (sort of) plan. He's turning 10, and while that's not so old for a small dog, he is starting to suffer from his unfortunate conformation. I hope I can get one more year out of him as this Nationals wasn't what I know it could be. I don't know if it was the extreme nerves or I was just not able to focus with such prettiness all around but I know I didn't give Jazz the runs he deserved. I never felt fully connected to him and it showed. We didn't have a clean run all weekend. We came close, and a few of the runs were beautiful but I could tell we weren't as "on" as we usually are. That's not the trial I want to leave Jazz's career on.
Despite not being "all we can be," Jazz still managed to place (7th) and get me a big shiny ribbon! I love my ol' boy, he always tries so hard for me even when I'm not reciprocating.
Well, enough jabbering, let's look as some pictures! Here is the car that we crammed (literally) 6 dogs, 5 of which were not small! If you look closely you can see Jazz making especially sure he won't be left behind


Now, Faren demonstrates an interesting dog-loading technique on Beezer who seems a bit perturbed


*Ahem* Yep, the boy dogs on this trip got SUPER gay for eachother. They were adorable and disturbing all at the same time!





An interesting fact was discovered. We as a group are extremely patterned in our dog selection. Somehow we all ended up with one brown and one black dog...


7 looking studly in front of the famous "Canada Planks."


Those of you reading who have watched show jumping at Spruce Meadows, or who follow show jumping at all are probably squealing "Ooooh, the Canada Planks!" right now. I know I certainly did when I saw them up close and personal!


7 looking less studly. In fact, he's looking distinctly like "Goofy" in this shot. Awesome.


Here's a shot of our layout in the nice stall that we had all to ourselves. This was before Faren got stressed out on Saturday night and did was she does best...clean! We came back to a tidy, swept, sparkly (well, almost) stall after she was throught with it


This was 7's favourite part of the day...playing in the super awesome fountain!



And finally a few more driving pics, 'cause they're cute!




In closing here are a few of my runs from the event...

Nationals Draws Near...

Well, the countdown is coming to a close. There are now only 3 full days left (including today) before we leave for Nationals. I am literally shaking in my boots with nervous energy. The roadtrip part is going to be a blast...3 girls and 6 dogs in a car...what fun! I'll try and get loads of pics and video of our adventure as well as the actual competition. 7 will be coming along to keep Jazz company and Cooper's going to stay with my much-abused mom! (thanks mumz!)
I hope I'm not too nervous to appreciate actually being at Spruce Meadows. I went there several years ago with my mom to watch the Masters and I've always wanted to go back. So many of the Greats of show jumping have competed there, the place has a certain awe inspiring feel to it.

Weaves Day 20 (12 Poles!)

We did it! 12 poles in 20 days :-) While that isn't exactly Susan Garrett's 12 poles in 12 days I'm still pretty happy with our progress.

Weaves Day 19

PUPPY!

My friend Jessica recently aquired a new member of her family...meet Kepler, don't they look gorgeous together!

This puppy is well on his way to becoming THE MOST SOCIALIZED PUPPY IN THE WORLD! Seriously, Jess has had him all of two weeks and he's been EVERYWHERE and then some. This sunday we made a day out of a trip to the jazz festival. I brought 7, Aunty Jody brought Super Abby and of course Jess and Kepler. The dogs had a great time! Even though the trip was primarily for Kepler socializing, 7 and Abby got a lot out of it too. 7 made some big strides in his "oh dear, there's a small child and it wants to touch me" cringing. He even allowed a young baby to balance on his shoulder as he pulled himself up to standing position! I managed to get a lot of little people to pat him in unscary ways and feed him goodies, this kept him from getting too overwhelmed. We also met a lot of "family." Other people with dogs from 7's breeder. I think I ran into at least 3 people who had Brinkworth dogs...too funny!
Here are lots of pics of our little field trip...







Here the dogs are learning to drink water out of a poop bag...YES! A clean one! Bad dog parents, forgot a water dish :-(


This was supposed to be a cute pic of Jess and her puppy but Abby managed to steal the show with her Super Model pose in the background! Is it wrong to be jealous of a dog's body?



Okay, I know this one is blurry but it was way to cuuuuute to leave out!





Here are some videos of their play session before hitting the festival...





Now, Cooper's been a little ticked off lately that I haven't been posting much about him so here are some pics I took of him tonight that are very..."Cooper."






"Get OUT of MY photo shoot!!!!"

Weaves Day 18

Weaves Day 16 and 17

Weaves Days 14 and 15

Weave Catch up

I have been neglecting my weave training progress videos with 7 so they're starting to pile up. I have not had the time for very many sessions lately but here are the latest...

Agility Champion of the WORLD!

Ok, not quite...but close!

Jazz finished 2nd at this year's AAC BC/Yukon Regional Championships! We didn't get as many points this year, last year we finished 2nd with 483 points and this year we only managed 428 but we beat a lot more dogs. I guess this means that this year's courses were more difficult than last. I couldn't be happier with my li'l old man! He gave me every thing he had in every run (that dog couldn't disappoint me if he tried.) Despite that very hot weather on Saturday and occasional down-pours on Sunday, he was consistently fast and accurate all weekend. My wonderful friends and mother managed to film 5 out of 6 of my runs for me, so here they are...







Unfortunately as Murphy's Law would have it, the one run that didn't get filmed this weekend, Standard 2, was my absolute favourite. We were so in sync from beginning to end, there was never any doubt in my mind that we would go clean...and that's exactly what we did. Also, we finished 16 seconds under time so that gained us 16 bonus points! This was just one of those runs that leave you smiling for hours afterwards and you feel small chills up your spine when you think back to it days later.
Now, it's time to plan for Nationals which is being held in Spruce Meadows in Calgary this year. For a horsey girl like me, there's no better place so I'm just a tad excited!

Jazz wasn't the only star recently. I took 7 to another Susan Garrett Seminar in Pitt Meadows on Monday and he did beautifully. It was a foundation seminar that built on the exercises she showed us the last time she was here over a year ago. A number of times I heard her comment on how good-looking 7 is (but we all knew that!) and how well he was doing. She took me aside at one point and commented on our partnership very positively! Of course, I was so star-struck I can't remember exactly what she said but it was something along the lines of "you're doing a great job with that Vizsla, keep it up!" I was extremely proud of my baby dog and very inspired in our training. More weave training progress videos to come!

Weaves Day 11

Weaves Day 10

Jazz's last class before Regionals!

I got some more video of Jazz at class this week. It will be his last chance to practice before Regionals...*gulp*

Weaves Day 9

Weaves Day 7 and 8

Weaves Day 6

Weaves Day 5 and Jazz being a star!

I got some video of Jazz running a course at class. We're in overdrive preparing for Regionals which is just under two weeks away. I haven't done a tonne of training with Jazz since last Regionals so we're working on getting back in sync with eachother. I think weaves are the thing I'm going to concentrate most on from now until then.

Weaves Day 4

Weaves day 3

Yesterday, I got a bunch of sessions in at a school field nearby. 7 really seemed to make a breakthrough on this day, particularly with his off-side entrances. Those have been the ones he's struggled with since I first angled the poles so it was great to see him clicking like this!
The next time I train him I think I'm going to add the second set of poles as long as he continues to show me that he's understanding all the criteria.

Here are the vids from day 3...

Weaves Day 2

I'm happy with 7's weave progress so far, he is gaining confidence running through the poles and best of all he is bouncing back from failure without breaking stride. I've moved on to rewarding with a thrown toy to encourage speed and the single set of poles are now rotated to 8 and 2 o'clock.
Here are the video's of today's sessions!

Finally!

Today I finally started 7's weave pole training. I have dutifully waited until he was over a year (12 months, 20 days) as I will be teaching him via Susan Garrett's "2by 2" method which is a very fast moving method. The twisting and turning necessary for stellar, fast weave poles is not something a young puppy with an under developed skeleton should be asked to do.
I did 4 sessions with him today in my lane. I was using food for this first part so I needed to work on a ground that would allow 7 to easily track the flying cookies.
I am very happy with the progress he made today! He had two thought-provoking "failures" which allowed him to really get a good idea of what the criteria was I was looking for (move forward, quickly, through the poles along reward line.) I kept my sessions short only working him a total of 11 and a half minutes spread out over the four sessions. Also, between the second and third session, I took him away from the poles for several hours. We went for a hike and hung out in the house before I brought him back. This was to allow "latent learning" to kick in, and give him a chance to get the concept ingrained in his wee brain.
Anyhoo, here are the video's from today! I'm going to try and tape all of my sessions throughout this process.

Sun beam