and now it's time to GARDEN!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
MACH Amber
Amber got that one last double Q yesterday. So very exciting! That's my dad commenting from the stands while my husband filmed. I am so proud of my dog.
Now what are we going to do? I think we'll try a little Rally-O in May and I think I'll still run her in agility but probably start over in Novice Preferred at the 20" height since she's an old lady dog at 8 years old.
In other news, my vet decided to run a test on her urine last week. It's a bladder tumor antigen test that specifically tests for Transitional Cell Carcinoma, the most common cancer of the urinary tract and the one he was worried it could be. All we did was send in a urine sample to the lab. We got the call yesterday from the lab that it was NEGATIVE!!!! I think my vet was pretty sure it would come back positive. So there's still a small chance that it is some other kind of cancer but highly unlikely according to my vet. That made my entire day, week, month, year! So he says we don't have to worry about doing a biopsy right away, which is good since the tool is still not fixed and we still haven't ordered a new one.
Ahhh, life is good :)
I call this "Champion of my heart".
Now what are we going to do? I think we'll try a little Rally-O in May and I think I'll still run her in agility but probably start over in Novice Preferred at the 20" height since she's an old lady dog at 8 years old.
In other news, my vet decided to run a test on her urine last week. It's a bladder tumor antigen test that specifically tests for Transitional Cell Carcinoma, the most common cancer of the urinary tract and the one he was worried it could be. All we did was send in a urine sample to the lab. We got the call yesterday from the lab that it was NEGATIVE!!!! I think my vet was pretty sure it would come back positive. So there's still a small chance that it is some other kind of cancer but highly unlikely according to my vet. That made my entire day, week, month, year! So he says we don't have to worry about doing a biopsy right away, which is good since the tool is still not fixed and we still haven't ordered a new one.
Ahhh, life is good :)
Saturday, March 3, 2012
bird dog in the snow
We had one beautiful hike in it and now it's mud again and un hike-able.
There are a lot of quail in these foothills and the dogs love it.
We don't hunt. We are all a little gun shy around here. I once took them both to a practice held by the german shorthair pointer club where they had live pigeons and live guns. Both dogs very much wanted that pigeon in the beginning. The man holding it plucked some feathers and then tossed it out for each dog to chase, separately. They did. Then another man shot a gun. Both dogs immediately turned around and came back to me, quivering. I don't know what I expected, they were 6 and 9 years old at the time and had never heard gun shot before! The men with the club weren't much interested in helping us through it, they were mainly there for serious hunter folk to practice I think.
That's ok, I don't like guns either! I do find it really interesting watching a gun dog do what it's bred to do though. I wish I had started them out younger so they weren't afraid, maybe I'd have done some hunt tests with them but also, just for their well being when we happen to hear gunfire in the hills which we do occasionally.
Rye will point more often than Amber.
They don't catch them, they just want to find them.
There are a lot of quail in these foothills and the dogs love it.
We don't hunt. We are all a little gun shy around here. I once took them both to a practice held by the german shorthair pointer club where they had live pigeons and live guns. Both dogs very much wanted that pigeon in the beginning. The man holding it plucked some feathers and then tossed it out for each dog to chase, separately. They did. Then another man shot a gun. Both dogs immediately turned around and came back to me, quivering. I don't know what I expected, they were 6 and 9 years old at the time and had never heard gun shot before! The men with the club weren't much interested in helping us through it, they were mainly there for serious hunter folk to practice I think.
That's ok, I don't like guns either! I do find it really interesting watching a gun dog do what it's bred to do though. I wish I had started them out younger so they weren't afraid, maybe I'd have done some hunt tests with them but also, just for their well being when we happen to hear gunfire in the hills which we do occasionally.
Rye will point more often than Amber.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sunday 2/19/12, double Q #19!
I can't believe I am writing that! #19! I don't even care anymore, if she gets #20 I will be over the moon, if not, I don't care in the slightest.
We started adding up the double Qs on 9/29/07. I clearly remember her first double qualifying runs. I had traveled to this trial and was staying with my dad in Pocatello, Idaho. The morning of the trial it was snowing so hard that they canceled it until further notice as it was an outdoor trial. We checked back later that day and they said to check back in another few hours. Finally at around 2:00 pm it stopped snowing and the snow on the ground had melted off so they put on the trial! The sun was coming through the clouds at just that right angle to light everything on fire and it was COLD! I can almost still run that whole course in my mind, it was the second one of the day. She had qualified in Standard and we were running jumpers with weaves. She was feeling good and running FAST. I put in a front cross that was probably a second too late and she turned in mid air and landed on her neck and shoulder trying to go the direction I was going. It was one of those moments where you realize what your dog will do for you. She wasn't hurt but the people watching went Oooh!
Anyway, we had a wonderful couple of runs this past Sunday and a videographer was there filming every run and selling them. They are really high quality videos and I thought it would be fun to have these two runs on professional video.
First we ran the jumpers course. I think I should have crossed after the weaves to make the ending a tiny bit easier but it worked out ok. Can you hear the "tick" on the white panel jump?
Then we finished the day with Standard. A rather challenging course, especially that bit surrounding the A-frame. Fun! I cannot describe how much fun it is when your dog is running fast and happy and you are there with her and everything goes smoothly.
I didn't run this quite as I had planned, I wanted to cross after the chute and in between the last two jumps but I didn't feel I had time.
What a dog!
We started adding up the double Qs on 9/29/07. I clearly remember her first double qualifying runs. I had traveled to this trial and was staying with my dad in Pocatello, Idaho. The morning of the trial it was snowing so hard that they canceled it until further notice as it was an outdoor trial. We checked back later that day and they said to check back in another few hours. Finally at around 2:00 pm it stopped snowing and the snow on the ground had melted off so they put on the trial! The sun was coming through the clouds at just that right angle to light everything on fire and it was COLD! I can almost still run that whole course in my mind, it was the second one of the day. She had qualified in Standard and we were running jumpers with weaves. She was feeling good and running FAST. I put in a front cross that was probably a second too late and she turned in mid air and landed on her neck and shoulder trying to go the direction I was going. It was one of those moments where you realize what your dog will do for you. She wasn't hurt but the people watching went Oooh!
Anyway, we had a wonderful couple of runs this past Sunday and a videographer was there filming every run and selling them. They are really high quality videos and I thought it would be fun to have these two runs on professional video.
First we ran the jumpers course. I think I should have crossed after the weaves to make the ending a tiny bit easier but it worked out ok. Can you hear the "tick" on the white panel jump?
Then we finished the day with Standard. A rather challenging course, especially that bit surrounding the A-frame. Fun! I cannot describe how much fun it is when your dog is running fast and happy and you are there with her and everything goes smoothly.
I didn't run this quite as I had planned, I wanted to cross after the chute and in between the last two jumps but I didn't feel I had time.
What a dog!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Agility in February
We had a really fun weekend! On Friday Amber got double Q # 18 with two second place runs. She wasn't running super fast but she does have several different speeds of which I've never really been in control. Our judge for the weekend is going to be judging at the Nationals coming up in a few weeks and said she threw in a few courses to prepare teams headed that way. We are not going to nationals but enjoyed the fun courses anyway. The jumpers with weaves was fairly straight forward.
The standard wasn't anything too weird until we got to the end. That last jump, taken from the back side was rather hard. When I walked the course I didn't think it would be that big of a challenge but running it was different. My husband filming wasn't sure we had made it and spoke a dirty word on MY video. If the dog was too fast and far ahead of you they could easily see that jump and take it from the wrong side. It sure seems like they know what that last jump looks like, they can see the laser eyes for the timer, and somehow they know. Our ending was a little awkward but we did qualify.
After we run the course I put her leash on and run back to her crate and she gets a little taste of everything. This time I brought canned beef tripe, hard boiled eggs, string cheese (delivered piece by piece from my mouth which makes Amber's pupils get huge), and canned mackerel that I baked in the oven until it was almost crispy. She likes!
On Saturday on her first run of the day, Standard, she started off so slowly that she knocked the first bar. That's not normal for her! I guess I needed to work a little harder at revving her up before running. You'd think after all the time we've spent competing together that I'd know how to get her going. She and I made several more errors on that run but she sped up in the middle and it ended up being a very fun run!
Her Jumpers run was a slower start too but we did qualify. I am going to start practicing two jumps and stopping for a jackpot, three jumps, jackpot, back and forth mixed with a full course, to see if it improves her speed at the start.
Sunday was pretty awesome and I bought a video of her two Sunday runs which I will post when they email them to me.
Three day agility weekends tire us both out! So hard to go back to reality after a wonderful weekend spent with my dog and my dog friends.
The standard wasn't anything too weird until we got to the end. That last jump, taken from the back side was rather hard. When I walked the course I didn't think it would be that big of a challenge but running it was different. My husband filming wasn't sure we had made it and spoke a dirty word on MY video. If the dog was too fast and far ahead of you they could easily see that jump and take it from the wrong side. It sure seems like they know what that last jump looks like, they can see the laser eyes for the timer, and somehow they know. Our ending was a little awkward but we did qualify.
After we run the course I put her leash on and run back to her crate and she gets a little taste of everything. This time I brought canned beef tripe, hard boiled eggs, string cheese (delivered piece by piece from my mouth which makes Amber's pupils get huge), and canned mackerel that I baked in the oven until it was almost crispy. She likes!
On Saturday on her first run of the day, Standard, she started off so slowly that she knocked the first bar. That's not normal for her! I guess I needed to work a little harder at revving her up before running. You'd think after all the time we've spent competing together that I'd know how to get her going. She and I made several more errors on that run but she sped up in the middle and it ended up being a very fun run!
Her Jumpers run was a slower start too but we did qualify. I am going to start practicing two jumps and stopping for a jackpot, three jumps, jackpot, back and forth mixed with a full course, to see if it improves her speed at the start.
Sunday was pretty awesome and I bought a video of her two Sunday runs which I will post when they email them to me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)