National Specialty - Here We Come!

All the premiums are up on the CWCCA website for the 2010 National Specialty in Gettysburg, PA.  I printed off agility and conformation entries and filled everything out yesterday.  The agility trials don't open until Feb. 17th so I won't need to get those in the mail for a bit.  The conformation entries can go any time until March 31st.

Moira and Conner will be entered in agility this year.  No, I haven't run Conner in agility before but he's a sweet boy and generally very biddable so I don't think that will be an issue.  The bigger question will be if he's ready for his first trial.  I'll have to rely on Karen to continue working with him until the National.

Sam will be entered in Veteran Sweeps 11 years old + and the regular Veteran class for 11+ dogs.  Sam's entry will be dependent on how he is feeling come April.  This winter has been a little harder on the old man.  We've had colder temps and all the times he sacrificed his body for a good time are coming back to haunt him a bit.  He's on supplements and I hope to get him back into a schedule for acupuncture and maybe even get him doing some swimming to help with his conditioning.

Now to put aside all the $$ I'll need to finance this week long extravaganza.

NEW CHAMPION!!

Tonight there is a new champion on the "Sam-ily Tree" - pending AKC confirmation of course. 

I am talking about Associate Horde Member, Conner.  Who is also known as Ch Woodrose All Things Considered PT.  Conner was bred by Karen Lyons of Woodrose Cardigans.  He is by Sam and out of Tess (Ch Merrymoon Noblestar A Little Night Music) and I have had the joy of loving and working with him for the last 2 years or so.  It's been a long road to Conner's championship.  I was there for his first point, in the spring of 2007, and I'm so damned happy that I could be there for the last points too.  He went WD and BOWs for the cross-over points today in Fredericksburg, VA.

I started Conner on his herding training and put an HT on him at the 2008 National.  This fall, Karen put the PT on him and is working toward his Started title.  I hope to handle Conner at this year's CWCCA National agility trials since Karen has also been training him for agility. 

With any luck, Con will be become a full Horde member sometime in the next couple of years.  It is my fondest wish that he come live with me and the rest of the gang.

Below is a picture of me, Conner and Moira that was taken a little over a year ago at a herding match.  When I get a copy of his win picture from today, I will post that.

Weaves

As is always the case, entering a trial means actually getting to work on the skill set that is lacking.  As I posted earlier, I've mailed Moira's first agility trial entry.  It's a random draw trial so there's no guarantee that we'll get in but, I am working on the premise that we will.

The weather has warmed up enough that I'm not worried about either Ra or I getting frostbite while we work on weaves.  Actually, given that I am keep the training sessions very short that wasn't really a worry anyway but I like the drama of the idea :)

Over the weekend we worked 2 or 3 times a day for 5-10 minutes each.  Since the work week started, it's once a day for the same amount of time - usually when I get home from work.  I think we are making some progress.  She's certainly excited about going outside to "do 'gilities."  Right now, I'm not worrying too much about entries and focusing on getting her to be consistent running all the way through the channel.  I've already closed it down quite a bit so she does have to "weave" a little.  I experiment with opening and closing the channel in different places to see if she understands the job - so far I've left the entrance open.  Most of the time she gets it but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades so we have to keep working.

51 days and counting.....

I'd Like to Report a Robbery

Officer, I'd like to report a robbery.  I was having pizza for dinner tonight and I left a piece of crust on my plate while I was putting another piece of wood on the fire.  When I returned to the plate, the crust was gone and I heard a chomping noise from the floor.  Did I get a look at the suspect?  Yes.  The suspect was between 10 and 12" at the shoulder, red hair, mostly white ears and had pizza sauce on her chin.  I believe she goes by the name of Moira, aka Ra, aka PuPu, aka Pu Head, aka Stinkerbell.  I tried to pursue the suspect but the evidence was swallowed before I could catch her.

Will you put out a BOLO on her?  Please advise officers to proceed with caution.  She is agility trained and may attempt to elude capture by jumping, running through tunnels or climbing the A frame.

Maybe I Overcommitted

I mailed Moira's first agility trial entry today.  The trial is March 6-7, in C'ville so it's a "home" game.  Here's the thing - I have agility tomorrow night and then my class is taking a break until Feb. 3!

I don't have weaves yet and I don't have a full-height teeter.  Think I can get the weaves in the time I have?  I have a set of channel weaves at home but the weather has not been cooperative lately.  Nearly 2 feet of snow last month and super cold temps since make the idea of working outside unappealing.  I can't exactly haul the weaves inside.....

What was I thinking??

Twigs on the "Sam-ily" Tree

With thanks to Dawn at Smalltyme Cardigans for coining "Sam-ily."  Not sure if I got all 6 pups in these pics, I chose the ones that were in focus.  Hopefully, there will be more pictures soon.

Ringing in the New Year

Yesterday Ann and I had our 2nd annual New Year's Day Open House.  We had about 30 people over for an afternoon of food, conversation and cocktails.  The menu included Black Eyed Peas (for luck), Coleslaw (for money) and Ham (for health).  We also had German Potato Salad, Peach Cobbler, Smoked Turkey Breast and all kinds of snackin' foods.  Sam and Gin joined in the socializing while the baby dogs (Moira and Bogey) stayed in crates in my room.  Moira doesn't do well with strangers in the house and 30 of them would have meant months or years of therapy for her.  Bogey, at 10 months, hasn't hosted a shindig yet and knowing there would be lots of people coming and going we didn't want to lose track of him.  I have to say how proud I am of Sam and Gin.  There were several children at the party who hugged, hung on and petted the dogs almost constantly and my two senior citizens took it all in stride.  It probably helped that they were fed nearly half a bag of tortilla chips by those same children!

Today I got the news that Sam is a baby daddy again.  Ch. Aberdovey's Infatuation, Lucy, delivered 6 puppies yesterday via c-section.  There are 4 girls and 2 boys, all are reds or sables.  Liz Hillebrand, Lucy's mom, says the pups are huge!  Everyone is doing well and I hope to have pictures to post soon.

Hope you all had as wonderful a New Year as we did.  I'm looking forward to everything that the new year, and new decade, has in store for us.