Resq TailsThe trials and triumphs of rescued dogs

I’m not complaining, honest. LOL I love summertime, but doing much of anything in the middle of the day now has become nearly impossible because it’s really gotten hot the last week or so. We were talking at agility class today about changing classes over to an evening for the rest of the summer. Would be much nicer for the dogs and for us. Here’s a picture I got after all the dogs were out playing in the yard yesterday afternoon. It’s not a great picture quality wise, but just look at the length of that tongue! Layla says “it’s hot, mom!”

Well, I didn’t find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow this morning, but just the site of something so beautiful was enough to start my morning off nicely! I was really pleased that the camera caught the colors so well.

The boarding kennel has been keeping me busy lately. Which is a mixed blessing I suppose. It’s of course great that the business seems to be taking off, but it’s also nice when it’s slow and I have more time to just spend with my own dogs.

Training is going well though, Twist and I have been working on his broadjump for Open Obedience and I think we’re making progress. It’s been really nice having the agility field back again. Raven’s doing nicely with her obedience training, but her agility contacts still aren’t what I would like them to be. I think I’ve tried just about every method for training contacts, (2ox2o, using stride regulators for a running contact, 4 on the floor), but none seems to work for her. I am kind of stumped right now. Zoe’s still running great, even though we haven’t been able to trial as much as I would have liked this year. It’s hard to believe that she turned 9 today! Seems impossible. I wish I could just freeze time so that she didn’t get any older. Doesn’t work that way though. Layla’s 10 months old now, and is coming right along with her training too. Penny and Lucy are doing still doing great, although Penny wishes that all the afternoon thunderstorms that we’ve been getting would end.

I guess that’s about it, for what’s been going on here…

I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to be able to get the agility equipment back out of the barn this year. Ever since I decided to let the boarding dogs run and play out where the agility field used to be, I’ve been trying to get another area cleared for us to move the equipment. It was a much bigger project than I expected!

Three acres might sound lovely, except that when a good portion of the acreage is growing weeds, it’s a bit discouraging. The area where we’ve moved the agility field now was covered in dead weeds from last fall that were nearly as tall as I am. Those had to be raked out and burned before I could even tell what kind of a mess I had growing underneath them. That took what seemed like forever!!! Then I tackled the new crop of weeds coming up this spring. I was beginning to lose heart when my husband suprised me last week by renting a tractor and tilling up the rest of what was left and leveling out the big bumpy areas. (What a great guy!) So, after a bit more leveling by hand this week, I now have a somewhat manageable, though not perfect new agility field again.

We got all the equipment out just in time to get a few runs in between the afternoon storms that we’ve been getting each day. It was perfect since our regular agility class was cancelled, once again. It felt so good to get back out and be running again, it’s been waay too long. Woohoo!

Here’s some pictures of the field.

Ok, so I finally got it together and took a picture of Raven with her ribbons from the obedience trial last weekend. The only thing I wish is that the club would have had a ribbon for completing her title, but that’s ok. This picture of her makes me laugh because if you look close you can see her teeth, it looks like she’s trying to smile for the picture. LOL

I’m behind as usual in posting about the weekend’s trial. It always seems to take me a day or two to catch up after I get home from a trip.

Anyway…Raven earned her CD this weekend!!! I wish I had a picture of her with her ribbons, (she had a 2nd place on Sat. and took 1st place on Sun.) but I fell down on the job. The weather was so bad on Sunday that we had all been drenched in the downpour of rain that lasted all morning and partly into the afternoon. By the time she finished up her class that afternoon, we all just felt a little chilled, soggy and wanted to get home to a nice hot shower more than anything else. That’s my excuse for not sticking around to take pictures.

So, now Raven’s ready to move on to her Open Obedience work. Yay! Should be lots of fun. She’s already got a better broadjump than Twist, although that doesn’t take much. LOL We’re still working on her dumbell and some other pieces, but I’m sure they’ll come along.

I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off, once again. Twist, Raven, Layla, Angel (the foster sheltie) and myself are packing up and heading out to go to an obedience trial in Farmington this weekend. Well, Angel’s not going to the Obedience trial, she is just going back to Sheltie Rescue of Utah, since they are now back from their trip to Bucharest, so her brief stay with us has come to it’s end.

I’m really hoping that Raven will be able to finish her CD this weekend. She got her first leg at the Sheltie Specialty at the end of April, so she only needs two more. Twist is just entered on Sat. of this trial to see if our work on the broadjump has improved to the point that he might be able to qualifiy in Open for the first time. I’m a little nervous. Ok, I’m a lot nervous. Obedience always makes me more nervous that agility does, for whatever reason. I love it though.

Layla is going along to have a lesson tonight, so I’m really looking forward to that. It’s always nice to see if we are making progress and then what areas still need our attention. Anyway, hopefully we’ll have lots of good news and some pictures or some video to share when we get home…

This past weekend I got the chance to attend an agility seminar, by Jim Basic. It was focused on distance handling skills, something that I’ve never excelled in training with my dogs. I didn’t have a working spot, just went to audit the first two days, but it was such a good seminar, I don’t think that you had to have a working spot to benefit.

The first day focused on foundation skills to teach your dog to work away from you. I loved how Jim presented the drills. They were simple and they made sense. Nothing complicated, just the kind of thing that I needed.

The second day focused on more advanced distance work, and by the time the day was finished I was so impressed by how well all the dogs in the working spots were putting the skills together to accomplish much more complicated distance drills. It was really cool.

I came home with lots and lots to work on, but at least now I have a really clear idea in my head of how to start, and then build these skills. It was a really great weekend!