SHE LOVES AGILITY

Yesterday we went to a drop in agility class in Portland. Kula LOVES agiltiy. Look at her face! Vicki pointed out to me that my attitude with her in the ring was REALLY affecting how she was running. (Like when I got on her because she didn't understand my directions...which of course where messed up ...body language opposite what was coming out of my mouth...she totally turned off!)
Today I am making an affirmations flip book. Made of 3x5 cards and bound by a ring, I will write the things that are important to me about trialing with Kula. The first card will be a copy of this picture! The look on her face when she understands what I want and is running a course with me is the #1 goal!
I will put this "book" into our agility bag so that I can review it as we wait at trials!

Teamwork

I am sure there are two more squirrels in this equation. Betsy, Dena, Rachel, Val, Vicki.

Teamwork. Tomorrow I am headed to Vicki's house for grooming help. I am freaking out about the transition between neck and topline on Kona (we are going to Canada next weekend), so off to Portland to get help from my team!

Our quilt is finished!

Barb and John Schuster are angels. They have made an amazing lap quilt for us to sell on ebay to help with our expenses to go to Pennsylvania in September. It is 44.5 inches by 56 inches. Barb said that makes it a lap quilt (for a rather large lap!). She said it is what is called a picture quilt. So the next step is to take good close up pictures of it and get it onto ebay. She has titled it "Going to the dogs". I will make a blog with a link when we get it on there.

EARTHDOG THIS COMING WEEKEND....

....RATZ. It is in Woodland, CA!

Couple of puppy pics.

These two are Sammy's puppies.

KinLoch's Homer in the Gloamin or "Glo" and KinLoch's Triple Play or "Evers." They are 7 weeks old now and looking forward to their first Earthdog outing in a few weeks.

And these are Tessa's five that will be two weeks Monday Evening. The two girls (smallest) are Buffy and Willow and the three boys are Xander, Giles (red) and Oz.

Start Planning for Pennsylvania!

Remember that we need to start collecting the small wire crates like I have. Watch craigs list and all those kinds of places. If we are going to get more people and dogs in the van this year, we will have to use the small wire crates. (Isn't that what we were plotting as we were driving home last year?) 7 months. I am channeling my frustration at not going to NorCal into plotting for the 2nd annual eastern migration of the nwpaws clan.

VAL - BE SILLY - BE VERY SILLY!

CHIPPING AWAY!!

DENA AND HUNTER ARE CHIPPING AWAY AT THOSE LAST POINTS FOR HIS CHAMPIONSHIP. AT ALBANY LAST WEEKEND, HE TOOK WINNERS DOG ON SUNDAY. THAT LEAVES 2 POINTS FOR HIM TO FINISH!!! CONGRATS TO THOSE TWO ALSO.

Nearly very silly

I was almost really silly this weekend. Pat called and said. "Let's fly down to San Francisco and go to the specialty on Saturday." At first I laughed, then I asked; "How much are tickets?" The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go. I spoke with Pat and she indicated tickets were only about $200. I really started to get excited. How ridiculous is that anyway, excited about a spontaneous expenditure of that amount of money? So, then I went online to find a flight. Actually, the flight would have been $224 plus all the attached fees....$260. Oh, then we would have needed to rent a car, because that cost was to SFO, not the airport that was just 8 miles from the fairgrounds. Then, parking in Seattle, food...okay $350 conservatively! So, then I was talking to Vicki and told her I wanted her to tell me how dumb it would be for me to spend my money like that. She got all excited and told me all the reasons why I should go, take my show clothes to help Barb, help groom Marty up.....Okay, so that strategy backfired. I wanted to go more than ever now. I had all these arguements in my own head. Fortifying friendships, being seen as a serious "player" because I was at the specialty (even though I had nothing to show), meeting Jill (Herbie the rescues mom), another peak at the sun (that one was pretty powerful....)! I sooooooo wanted Greg to say; "It would be fun, go ahead and go, you can put $150 of grooming money back into household." Of course he didn't say that. What he said, was "If you want to go, of course you can. Think about it and if you think that is the best use of our money right now, go ahead." Man I HATE it when he says that. So, I am being sensible and a good steward of our resources. It would have been fun to see my friends from that area, but it feels good to do the right thing for now.

-----Brags for Rachel-----

Well, I'm surprised Rachel has not bragged yet. So I will do it for her. This last Sunday down at the Albany show Sammy and her new big brother Rain, the Maligator, were stars.

Rain just turning 6 months, was Winner's Dog for his first point at his first show!

Sammy was also there in tow with her 6-week old children, "Glo" and "Evers." While she was in the Obedience ring they were playing in The Big Rig with Gary and the GSDs.

With only four days of practice since before October, Sammy and Rachel went in to Novice B and kicked butt. With 19 competing in the class along with 3 Obedience judges she was

THIRD place with a qualifing score of 192.5!!!