This week is getting away from me quicker than I expected. LOL We had a really nice weekend! Friday started off with an obedience lesson for Twist and Raven. We have lots and lots to work on before the Utah Sheltie Specialty at the end of April. That’s good though.
Saturday and Sunday we spent at the DOCNA trial. I only had Zoe entered, but then they offered day of trial entries, so I broke down and entered Raven for the last run of the day on Sunday. Zoe had a nice weekend. She was really consistent and Q’d with first place in 8 of the 10 classes that she ran in. The other two were my fault. I got lost and sent her into an offcourse tunnel on one class, and realized it too late to get her turned around, and the other was a class called Strategic Time Gamble, and you make up your own course to accumulate points in the opening time period of 30 seconds. Then they blow a whistle and you have another 10-15 seconds to cross the finish jump. The problem is that you can’t finish too early or too late, it’s more a gamble of whether you can estimate how many obstacles your dog can complete in a certain amount of time, and I suck at that. We crossed the finish jump too soon, and lost the Q. Raven Q’d in her one jumpers run, which should have finished her Beginner’s jumper title.
Zoe did qualify in the North American Challenge Class though, and that is DOCNA’s qualifier for their Championships, so if we decide that we can get away (time and moneywise), we are qualified to go to Prescott, AZ in Oct. for the Western Championships. That would be fun!
The next few days are going to be busy. I am sitting waiting right now for a client to pick up their dog. I hate waiting for people. It seems like that’s what a majority of my time is spent doing with the boarding kennel. Waiting for people to pick-up/drop-off dogs. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could count on them showing up at a specific time, but you just can’t. People tell you that they’ll be there at one time and then show up hours later. It’s very frustrating because it means that you are tied to the house, and can’t leave.
Anyway, in the meantime, today I’m trying to get a packing list together so that I can be ready to leave Friday morning for Salt Lake. Zoe is entered in a DOCNA agility trial this weekend. I was only planning on travelling with Zoe and Layla this time, but there is an obedience ring set-up on Friday if we can get there early enough that would be ideal training for Twist and Raven. So…it’s looking like I’ll be bringing all the Shelties but Rogue this time. She’ll have to stay home with her dad and keep things in line here.
I have a three boarding dogs going home tomorrow, and at least one coming in, and then I have agility class with Zoe and Raven, and somewhere in between that I’d love to get a chance to bathe everybody. It’s not looking real promising though. LOL I almost forgot I have the cats that I’m watching for some friends while they are in Indiana too. All in all, it’s going to be a busy last half of the week, but I think alot of it is going to be spent hurrying up to sit around a wait for people.
Well, the “dream team” of Twist and Layla strikes again. We were just vegging in front of the TV last night and I had my husband snap this shot of them. Don’t they lay in the strangest positions? Don’t know how they can be comfortable, but they don’t seem to mind. You’ll have to ignore me, I couldn’t crop myself out without cutting off Layla’s feet. LOL
So, we went for a walk yesterday and Penny found this hole in the snow. I don’t know what it went to, but the series of pictures that I got just cracked me up!
I just had to share a short little clip of Layla and Twist’s morning play routine. They usually play like this for a good 1/2 hour or so before they take a little nap and then start right back up again.
After wallowing around in a pool of my own disappointment for most of the day yesterday, I was brought to my senses by the dogs running and playing in the sunshine (and mud) in the yard. They weren’t disappointed at all by the fact that I’d cancelled our trip. They couldn’t have cared less. LOL They were enjoying the day. It was just what I needed to refocus my thoughts onto being grateful for what we have, not focusing on what we don’t have.
1. The fact that my husband can’t reasonably take vacation time off work right now isn’t something bad, it just means that he still has a job, (which is something to be grateful for, not begrudge).
2. Even though we didn’t get to actually compete at the Nationals, I need to focus on the fact that it was a nice accomplishment to meet the qualifications.
So, a big thanks to my 7 happy, muddy dogs for reminding me of what a great life we have!
This week is going to be hectic! We’ve got a bunch to squeeze in before we leave on Thurs. to go to Farmington for our first agility trial of the year. It’s a three day trial, but I’ve only entered the first two days. I’m pretty nervous about running with Raven again. It’s been almost a year since she’s trialed. She was getting stressed out at trials so we took so time off competing, tried to concentrate on our training, and did some fun little demo things to try to build her confidence. I guess it’s about time to see if it’s helped her.
Zoe’s pretty steady, so running her doesn’t make me nervous, we just have fun! I’m hoping that Zoe can finally get that last FAST leg that she needs to finish that title. Distance work with Zoe has always been a weak point. LOL
Layla is coming along to just get used to the trial atmosphere. This will be her first trip! I think she’s going to do well, (I hope). She’s a really good little traveler on the short day trips that we’ve taken so far.
Rogue and Twist are going to stay home to keep Penny, Lucy and their dad company for the weekend. I doubt that Rogue will be very happy about being left with him, but I just don’t see any sense in stressing her out more than normal in a trial environment, till we can get her medication regulated. If we can get things figured out for her so that she is comfortable at home then we might start taking her on the road a bit again, but until then we’re just slowing things down for a while.
We’ve been walking as much as possible this winter to keep everybody busy. I thought I’d post some of the pictures from our walks. It cracks me up because on nearly every walk, Penny and Zoe end up together, Raven has Layla hot on her heels, Twist and Lucy head off to make their own trails, and Rogue stays with me.
