Zoe managed to qualify in Gamblers, Snakes N’ Ladders, Jumpers, and NAC. NAC she bailed her teeter, but she still Q’d. Here’s her NAC run.

Raven q’d in Jumpers, Snakes N’ Ladders, and Standard, I think. She didn’t qualify in NAC because she had too many time faults and knocked a bar besides. I am still debating whether to enter her tomorrow in NAC again or not.

Dare q’d in Snakes N’ Ladders. I was really happy with her.

I have other video, besides just Zoe’s NAC, but I didn’t have time to upload it and I’m ready to go to bed now. My knee went out again this morning and I can’t figure out what I’ve done. I get plenty of things telling me how to get rid of pimples but none on how to get rid of knee pain. Oh well, the wrap is helping and maybe tomorrow it will be back to normal anyway.

I really wanted to do this DOCNA trial with Zoe because it’s her chance to qualify for Championships again, and we always have a really nice time at DOCNA Championships. I figured we’d do enter the whole weekend, while we’re up there. Then, I decided last minute that maybe I should let Raven run too. Then while I was temporarily losing my mind, I entered Dare in Snakes N Ladders and two runs of Gamblers. For anyone that isn’t familiar with DOCNA, Snakes N Ladders is a class that has no jumps. That is right up Dare’s alley…at least I hope it is. I decided to try out Gamblers with her too because I can still create my own courses, and I’m hoping to just make this a fun positive experience for her.

Anyway, it all sounded good until I started looking at how many runs I’d entered. I realized it was a total of 27 over the course of the weekend with all the girls! Good thing I’ve been doing a LOT of walking lately. At least I have a little more stamina. I may be needing a day at the spa after all those runs, but I don’t have a spa or a spa cover so I’m probably out of luck. That’s ok, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be happy with a nice relaxing hot shower and my jammies at the end of the trial days instead.

Anyway, we’ve been walking different roads than usual and I thought I’d show you what the main road coming into our town looks like now.

This is the bridge and as you can see the river isn’t anywhere close to it’s banks anymore.

Fortunately, even though this is just about a mile and a half down the road from my house, we still aren’t in danger of flooding at our house. Thank goodness since I have trouble understanding term life insurance, let alone flood insurance.

Anyway, enough about the weather…for today. LOL Friday we are heading out of town to go to a DOCNA trial. While we’re up in Salt Lake, we’re going to go into the opthomalogist and have Dare’s eyes rechecked. Then Sat., Sun., and Monday is the trial. Zoe, Raven and Dare are all entered. It should be pretty fun. That is, if I can even remember how to run agility. Seems like ages since we’ve been to a trial.

The typical way it starts is with a little chaos!

Then everyone settled into their walk, except that Penny’s nose took her into a sagebrush. Deep into the sagebrush. LOL I don’t have a clue what she was looking for.

Then Dare had to stop to pose for me at the top of the hill. I guess she was actually just watching all the other dogs waste their energy, but it was a nice pose for me with the mountains behind her.

Hmmmm….this group just looks like trouble. Watch out world!

Twist and Dare taking in the view. Aren’t the rocks in the background cool?

Happy Raven face!

I think everybody’s having a good time.

Lucy loving the water

Zoe NOT loving the water. Might have had something to do with the fact that she’d just found a disgusting dead deer to roll in and so I thought she could use an impromptu bath before the ride home.

Dare is such a poser.

And the walk ends much the way it began, with Layla barking at the dogs to keep going! She might be telling Raven to “put down the prevera wrinkle cream grandma, and run, run, run!” Or maybe not. LOL

They all were excited to get started….

As we went further, no one had walked on the trails yet, so we had to make our own.

Eventually most of us decided that we’d let my husband make the trail and we’d just follow.

You’ll notice that the exception to that statement is Lucy. She just can’t stand to not be in front of everyone blazing her own trail. Then Layla soon decided that she was too big to waiting for someone to make a trail for her either and broke out of the formation. Here she is making the leap….

And then sinking into the deep snow. What a silly girl!

Here’s my favorite bridge on this walk….

and Dare coming back over to check on why I’m not coming…

And a little sheltie “family” picture….

And then the races as we went back to the truck. Penny was the judge, and obviously Twist got distracted at the startline. What a shocker!

Looks like Zoe is the winner, and…..Twist is still distracted. LOL

And finally the best place to be when you get home from a cold winter’s walk…

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Another year has come and gone. It was a year packed with lots of memories. Some I’ll cherish forever, and some I wish I could forget. LOL Looking back though, I can honestly say that I’ve learned something from all the experiences, both good and the not so good.

First of all I don’t know what direction to go with Zoe. Zoe and I have tried a variety of the different agility venues that are out there. NADAC/ASCA, USDAA, DOCNA and AKC. In recent years we’ve focused mainly on AKC agility, with a little DOCNA sprinkled in here and there. I just can’t decide whether to continue doing AKC with Zoe, in hopes of getting her MACH2. She’s already 9 1/2. In looking back at what it took for us to get her MACH, I think we’d be looking at the liklihood of it taking two years of trialing to be able to finish a MACH2. She’s got the speed points, but she needs 18 more pesky double q’s. In two years she’ll be almost 12. I don’t even like to think about her getting older! Even though I’d really like to think that she could still be running in two more years, I don’t think I’ll want to jump her at full height at that age. Thus the debate…In my fantasy world where I have unlimited funds and time, I’d say “yes, who cares if you get the MACH2, just keep running and see what happens”. In my real world where there is a very real limit on both time and money, I think it really doesn’t make sense to spend both on a title that is probably not within our reasonable grasp.

Then Layla…I had hoped that she would be ready to enter in Novice agility in March for the Sheltie Nationals, (since they are in AZ this year). However, I never expected that she was going to come up lame and we would lose more than 2 1/2 mo. of training time this fall. Now we are behind where I expected to be with her training. It’s also the worst time of year for training more than just pieces, since we’re mostly training in our barn now. So, I can’t decide whether to try to enter her anyway…or just bag my plans for Sheltie Nationals this year.

Lastly, Raven. Raven just goes crazy to do agility and obedience at home. She has an absolute hissy fit if you go out to train one of the other dogs and she has to wait inside the house. When she gets to the trials though, she’s a totally different dog. She acts like she needs a cheerleader to get around the course. All the confidence and speed that she has at home is lacking. She just doesn’t have the temperment that handles the trial environment well. That having been said, she still has been able to get to Excellent and earn one leg towards both her AX and her AXJ. I’d really like to finish those titles and then just let her do agility at home and forget about trialing with her. It just seems so odd to me to have a dog that is just coming up on 5 years old that I wouldn’t be trialing with.

Anyway, the decision is coming up the quickest for the crew here is for January. There is an AKC trial that I’d like to enter, but I don’t know who or what to enter. LOL I think it’s a waste of funds to enter Zoe, but I can’t imagine going to a trial and not running her. I’d like to enter Raven and hopefully get closer to finishing off that AX and AXJ. And…I’m toying with the idea of entering Layla in Novice FAST, just to see where she’s really at, but I also think it’s just rushing her. Any thoughts??? Besides that I’m crazy. LOL

So this picture has Twist, Dare, Raven and Layla in it. Course, all you can see is Layla’s legs cause she’s such a shortie. LOL

Zoe looks vicious in this one. Silly girl!

Go Layla Go!

Then I got several of Dare and Twist

The only down side was the Zoe still wasn’t able to finish her Ex. FAST title. Raven did really well the first day of the trial. She was eager to run, and kept up decent speed around the course, even if it wasn’t quite like she runs at home or practice. The second day, though, she seemed to be more anxious…I think I’ll take that information and just enter her in one day of a trial next time. I want to keep her attitude happy about trialing.

Here are some videos of the girls Standard runs from Friday.