GOODBYE 2009…FULL SPEED AHEAD TO 2010!
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.
Here are some pictures of most of the crew here playing in the snow. I’ll do another post of Dare’s pictures.
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
It’s already Thurs. and I don’t know what’s happened to the first part of the week. A friend of mine is having a yard sale tomorrow and Saturday, and is letting me take some stuff that I’ve had sitting around here over to throw in with her stuff. There are just a couple of hitches to that. She wants to set everything up today, and it’s still cloudy and when I walked outside to take care of the boarders a bit ago I saw more lightning, so I don’t think that we’re done with the storm that came in yesterday. The other problem is that I need to go through and clean off all the dust that’s accumulated on the stuff that’s been sitting in the barn waiting to be sold. I guess I’ll do some cleanup this morning and try to get it hauled over there this afternoon.
Then tomorrow, I’m going to head to Parowan to do some Obedience and possibly some agility at another friend’s yard. She has open practice on Friday mornings, and since Twist’s obedience trial is coming up next weekend and it’s outdoors, I thought this would be a good chance to get some training in a semi-new place, with dogs that he doesn’t see each week. I think I’ll also take Layla since she’s never been there, and Dare for socialization. The bummer about it is that I’ll have to leave here by a little before 6:00 am to get there on time. 
Sat. I need to help out with the yard sale, (since I’m pretty much taking my stuff over and then bailing out on her Friday), but my husband’s parents and grandparents are both coming in from out of town to visit. I don’t know how that’s going to work out. They aren’t dog people, so I’m always in a fit about trying to get the house cleaned for them, but this time…I’m just to rushed for time to do a whole lot. I never look forward to their visits even though they are just really nice people. I think it’s just that our lifestyles are so different… 
They are spending the night in a hotel at least, so I don’t have to worry about that part.
Sun. we’re supposed to have a barbeque at another friends house, and I’ve got to get the food together that I’m assigned to bring. I guess if I survive till Sunday, this will be the least of my worries. LOL
I know I sometimes forget to appreciate the truly simple things. I think animals in general are great reminders for us, of how much enjoyment we can get from something that we don’t even notice. Puppies are especially talented at this. They seem to be able to find so much fun and satisfaction in things we take for granted.
For instance when Layla first came to us one of her very favorite toys was an empty plastic fruit/pudding cup. She’d bat that around the house and pounce on it, and have the greatest time. Now Dare has decided that empty plastic water bottles have the same kind of enticement for her. LOL I got some video of her playing with the plastic water bottle the other day.
Then I walk outside yesterday and Dare has taken the big water bucket that I was rinsing and getting ready to refill, and she’s flipped it over upside-down and is playing Circus Sheltie on top of it. It was a hoot. I just thought it was such a good reminder to take time to enjoy some of the simple things, I had to share.
The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of activity around here. I knew it was going to be busy, but I really didn’t have a clue how busy! The middle of the month Cynthia and I had a trip planned to fly to Newark pick up her new Danish Swedish Farmdog puppy, Jet! We’d been waiting, (not patiently I might add LOL) for what seemed like months for him to come. To check out what a cutie Jet is you should hop on over to Tiptail and read all about his adventures! www.tiptail.com
That would have been plenty exciting and fun in itself but just a few days before we were scheduled to leave, I got an email from Judy with Himark Shelties in Florida. I’d been on a waiting list for one of her puppies. She was writing to let me know that a puppy had become available that she thought was just what I was looking for. Judy and Dave Guaraldo have consistently been producing some of the top ranked performance shelties in the country for years. They are even being spotlighted in this summer’s issue of the Sheltie Pacesetter.
I have to say that I was a bundle of mixed emotions. I was so excited to meet this little girl! At the same time there is always that question of when, (if ever), is a good time to introduce another dog into the family. Also, since I’ve been involved in rescue, our dogs have mainly been rescues. I think I felt a twinge of guilt for looking at buying from a breeder, (regardless of how reputable), when there are so many Shelties in rescue. However, while I absolutely adore my rescues, at times the baggage that has come along with them has made competition Obedience and Agility a real challenge. So, to make this long story shorter…the conclusion I came to was that Cynthia and I would fly down there and meet her and make the final decision then.
Well, I’m sure that you’ve all guessed…we brought her home with us. She is everything that I was hoping for and more! All my hesitancy is gone. I can’t thank Judy enough for matching me up with and entrusting me with this little girl. We’ve named her Dare. All the dogs in the house have been quite taken with her too, which is wonderful. Layla is thrilled to have a new playmate and even Zoe is playing with her. Here is quick clip of Dare and her littermates the day we met them tugging on a toy. I’ll post more pictures in a separate post.
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’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…
I just love this time of year! Everything is finally turning green again, and I feel like I’m coming to life again after a long winter. So, today we went down to our friends place to train with the dogs. She lives about 1/2 an hour away and the drive is a beautiful one. It’s through a gorgeous canyon with water running through it. It’s one of my favorite drives.
So, we worked on Obedience with Raven, Twist and Layla. We worked outside today, which proved to be a huge distraction for all three dogs. My friend has geese, chickens, horses and a goat all within eye and earshot of where we were training. It was a challenge, but a really nice day. We have alot of work to do at different outdoor locations before the first of June because that obedience trial is outside (Yikes!).
On the way home everything just looked so pretty and green that I couldn’t help but pull off for a minute and take some pictures. Here are my favorites of the day.
I’ve been meaning to write about how the Utah Sheltie Specialty went for a couple of days now, but as usual time seems to get the better of me. Anyway, Raven and Twist were both entered in the Obedience portion of the Utah Sheltie Specialty this year.
Raven was trying out the Regular Novice class for the first time and Rally Novice for her second time. I was so proud of her! Raven qualified and took first place in both of her classes, and didn’t seem to get her usual case of ring nerves this time. She had a nice happy expression and wagging tail throughout. Woohoo!
Twist did really well, although he didn’t qualify. He still is not quite 100% confident about all the new exercises in Open, but I thought that he did a really nice job for his first time. We’re going to keep training on the broadjump and do some polishing up on a couple other little things and then I think he’ll be ready next time.
One of the really cool things about the Utah Sheltie Specialty is that our friend is usually in charge of organizing things and she always makes sure that there are lots of fun “special prizes” so that no one goes home empty handed. Alot of us will donate baskets full of fun things, and other prizes, and it’s always a highlight to see what everyone donated. This year Twist won the prize for highest scoring rescue Sheltie. I think she said that it was a crate pad or a bed or something. The only bummer was that we weren’t able to stay for the rest of the week and our prize wasn’t going to make it to the showsite till the next day. LOL Anyway, we had a really nice time 
I haven’t posted about this before now because I wanted to make sure that our registration had been accepted first. I finally got the email confirmation that I’d been waiting for…yesterday! So, the good news is we’re going to Camp W in Lake Tahoe again this year in September! Woohoo!
We got to go back in 2007 and we had a fantastic time. I took Twist and Zoe with me that year. It’s just a camp where you have the option of trying out a ton of different dog sports, like herding, obedience, agility, flyball, tracking, lure coursing and carting. Or, you can just choose to take absolutely gorgeous hikes, relax on the beach, do crafts…well you get the picture. It’s a no pressure vacation with the dogs! Did I mention that the food is great too?!
These are some pictures from camp with Zoe and Twist. Now the big decision for me is which dogs or dog to take?
