Tag Archives: Twist

We’ve Had Company!

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So, it’s been a busy week so far. We had a friend come visit and she brought her adorable girl Maizey along with her. We spent the week taking walks, doing a little bit of training, taking pictures in the mountains, visiting my parents farm and just relaxing in the evenings! I think we talked about every topic pertaining to pets that you can possibly think of.

Maizey and Layla hit it off like they’d known each other forever. Here’s a picture of Layla, Dare and Maizey up the mountains.

Then we went to the lake. Maybe we could have packed some lifejackets for pets, but everyone seemed to do just fine without them. Penny didn’t seem to want to swim much, but I don’t think she needed a lifejacket. I just think she got sick of Zoe and Raven barking out instructions on how to swim out and retrieve the sticks, while they waited at the shore. :-)

Then we went to my parents farm and visited all the spring babies and also all their dogs. Do you think we could find a few more professional beggers to join this motley crew?

After such a busy day, we came home exhausted. Well, I guess not all the dogs were exhausted, but I know the people were. LOL I spent a good portion of the rest of the evening searching for the best shampoos for pets, after all the sights and smells that the dogs had been busy investigating that day.

Anyway, we sure did enjoy being able to get out and enjoy the nice sunny day with good friends!

GSDOC Obedience Trial

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We’re back from the Obedience Trial.  We don’t have any Q’s to show for our weekend, but I was thrilled with Twist nonetheless.  On Friday, he did a good job, but he anticipated the drop on recall and so we failed that exercise and NQ’d.  In the out of site stay groups, the dog next to Twist got up and was tried to leave the ring, but Twist held his stays beautifully despite the distraction.  I was really proud of him.  Anyway, here is the video of yesterday exercises.

Today, Twist did a much better job than yesterday on everything, his heeling was better, he got all his finishes and we were sitting on a score of 192 1/2 when we went in for the stays.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Twist layed down right away during the out of site sit.  :-(   So another NQ for us today.  The out of site down stay was really exciting.  Seriously.  LOL  Right at the end of the 5 minutes, we were all lined up to return to the ring, when the ring exploded into action.  As we came around the corner all I could see was that all the dogs but 2 were up and running around the ring.  So, I guess what happened was that a pigeon had flown down and all through the stays was walking around just outside the ring taunting the dogs.  Right before we came back, the bird actually came into the ring, and then decided to fly.  That was just too much for the dogs closest and they broke to chase it.  When they broke, so did the rest of the line.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it!  Anyway, there were three dogs that were qualifying up to that point, so the judge let them re-test the long down.  One was a friend of mine and her dog passed and Q’d.  :-)

Anyway, my camera malfunctioned today and for whatever reason, my computer is saying that it can’t recognize the files, so I don’t have the video of Twist for today.  If I get it figured out, I’ll post it later.

On the Road…Again

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So, this weekend is Twist’s obedience trial. He’s entered on Friday and Saturday. We’ll be back up in Farmington again. Seems like we’ve spent more time in the Salt Lake area than we have at home the last little while. Fortunately, the dogs don’t mind traveling and for the most part neither do I. One of the only things that I don’t like about traveling is trying to eat well. :-P

Last year a friend of mine convinced me to try a diet with her and basically it involved just eating fresh whole foods rather than all the processed refined junk that it so easy and convenient. I felt so much better and I lost about 25 lbs. The problem is that ever since we went to AZ for DOCNA Championships last Oct. though I’ve had a hard time eating right consistently. In the last 6 months I’ve gained back around 5-7 lbs. Sometimes it’s just so tempting to try to find some fad diets that work, but I just don’t think anything but eating right and exercising more works for me. Since this is the last trial for this month until May, I think I’ll be able to get back on track starting next week.

Back to the obedience trial. Twist will be giving Open a try again. He’s such a funny boy. I know that he knows all the exercises, but he’s just so distractable. Hopefully with this being an indoor trial the distractions will be at a minimum and he’ll do great. He can do such nice work when he’s on. I should be able to update everybody tomorrow on how it goes.

Weekend Update

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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!

Hurry Up and Wait!

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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.

The Dream Team

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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

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Sheltie Family Picture Outakes

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So, I thought that Layla’s “wait” had come along far enough to test it out on some group pictures. I was wrong. LOL Here’s some of the outtakes.

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Setting everybody up….

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“Did you see her drop something?”

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Hmmm…wonder what I’m missing behind me?

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Woops! We’ve lost someone…..LAYLA!

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Wait, wait, there she is! She’s back, but not for long…

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Layla says: “I’m outta here! I’ve got much better things to do than sit and wait for you to snap my picture.”

We’ve obviously got a ways to go before she’s going to make group pictures an easy task again. LOL

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