The trial is going well. It’s pretty small, I think the judge said 150 runs for the whole day. Of course, I’ve never been to a small trial that ended early and this was no exception. We finished up around 5.
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.
So, as you know, I haven’t done an agility trial yet this year. In fact I haven’t done an agility trial for something like 7 months. I don’t think I’ve gone for that long without doing a trial since Zoe and I first got started. A lot of days I feel so out of the agility loop that I wonder if I’ll ever get back on track.
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.
I promise I will have something else to write about besides the weather next time, although the weather is affecting the trial that I’m headed to this weekend too. It was supposed to be held outdoors on grass, but they are expecting possible flooding, so they’ve moved us indoors.
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.
Rarely do I take all the dogs for a walk at once. I usually only attempt it when my husband is with me. So, it’s a treat when he decides to come with us. Here’s some pictures from our walk the other day.
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
Just thought I’d post some photos from the last month. The first ones are from the first of the month, you might be able to see some of the snow that was still on the trail. After I got home and got to looking at these, I thought it was funny, they kind of remind me of Miley and Guinness’ pictures. I hadn’t even thought of it when I just had Zoe and Dare with me that day. So, here are our copy cat photos. LOL
And then here are some from yesterday. After the obedience trial we took Twist, Dare and Layla for a hike before we drove back home. You can see it was a beautiful, much warmer day! Yay!
So, this morning we’re packing up the rest of what we’ll need for a three day ASCA agility trial in Farmington. Zoe is the only one I have entered this time. I had originally planned on entering both Zoe and Layla, but on re-reading the rules for eligibility for ASCA, Layla isn’t old enough to compete yet. In hindsight it was a blessing all the way around really. I thought her first AKC trial went fine, but it definintely showed me some spots that need training and more experience before we enter another trial, and when I entered Zoe in this trial my husband was still working…so money wasn’t quite as tight as it is now. So, all in all, for once it seems that things turned out just as they should have.
Anyway, I am just taking Zoe and Dare with me this time. Dare is going to be trying to get her CGC this weekend, and I also still needed to get her microchipped. So we’re making a stop at our friends with Sheltie Rescue of Utah and chipping her this afternoon, and then we’ll head on up to the trial. I’ll try to get video of whatever I can throughout the weekend, but no promises that I’ll get it posted before I get home Monday night. No promises for Tues either, since after I get home from the trial I have to turn around and drive to Cedar City for an appointment with our accoutant to get the taxes done.
So, here are another set of pictures from last month that I never posted. We took a walk up on one of the mountains nearby and these were the pictures.
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…
So, I got to looking and for some reason I never posted the pictures that I took of the dogs last month. I thought I had, but my memory deceived me. LOL Anyway, we had a storm that dropped about 7 inches on us, and the dogs had a blast playing in the fresh powder. It was deep enough on top of the other snow we already had that Layla was getting lost in it. Didn’t slow her down though.
It’s been a long time since I’ve tackled a project like this. I used to change things around and re-decorate and stuff a lot. In recent years the thought of doing anything hasn’t really inspired me to action. So, when I got the urge to take on the dogs’ room I thought I’d better act before I lost the motivation.
I’ve had the Sheltie’s crates (where they sleep and eat), spread somewhat helter skelter throughout the house. It really bugged me. The obsessive/compulsive side of me wanted it better organized, but I couldn’t figure out how to fit 5 crates into one room nicely. Twist already slams himself into the closed wire door about once a week trying to get to his crate quicker. LOL Plus, I’m not much more coordinated than Twist and the thought of 5 open/swinging doors in one room presents quite an obstacle course for all of us.
So…I’ve been eyeing these Pet Gear Other Door crates and I love the design of the “garage door” that folds up into the top. I finally gave in and bought them. Then I decided that the room wasn’t nice enough for the new crates, so I pulled everything out and repainted in there too.
I have to say that I’m absolutely one of the worst people for breaking in the middle of a project to take pictures, so there aren’t very many before, and during pictures. Sorry. You’ll just have to imagine that there were three mismatched wire crates under that one window one the short wall, and a canvas ex-pen for the pups along one of the other walls. I still haven’t decided whether to put it back in there or not.
Here’s my favorite picture of Dare checking out the new room. Hehe, she’s such a cutie. I still have a bit more to finish up. I need to buy a new light fixture, get some new window shades and then finally replacing some of the old pictures on the walls with newer ones, but all in all, it’s done. Yay!!!
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.
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. 
