Dynamite comes in small packages

In this photo, we have Rain The Good, laying next to the bed.
At the top, we have Tally The Tough, laying over Rain's full bowl of food.

See, the rule is, Tally's not allowed to eat out of Rain's bowl. Nowhere in the rules does it say that Tally must allow Rain to eat out of his bowl.

Dog Bed? I think NOT!

I won this "faux" leather/suede dog couch at the CRCTC Specialty in July at the Stumptown show in July. Since I'm in charge of the ways and means for the club the couch was at my house until the show. I had it out of the box to take pictures and after the pictures were taken had to kick the dogs off several times. Consequently, now that it has taken up residence at our home, the dogs won't use it. Tomcat, on the other hand, has no hesitation to relax and groom.

When do we leave?

We are off for Pennsylvania in a few days. Looking for the final Senior Earthdog leg for Sully's title! Of course, we have a few other activities planned...a tracking seminar the day we get there, watching some agility, watching some great dogs in the conformation ring, puppy sweepstakes next Saturday, education seminars, reconnecting with friends. It will be weird flying, weird doing so much "watching" and even more weird having only one dog with me. Right now he has his head laying on my elbow and is snoring. We are going to have fun!

Great Weekend at Turner

I know this is a bit late but had to post the pictures. :) Although the weekend started out quite rainy in Portland it cleared up in the afternoon in Turner. I only entered one dog into Intro - KinLoch's Homer in the Gloamin' "Chloe." She finally got down and started working. The judge opened the lid and she backed up. I got her to come forward as this was all quite new to her and the stupid judge grabbed at her as she started backing up - what an idiot. I did finally get her to let me pet her while she worked the rats.
Saturday evening after a great feast Ryan put on an above ground practice for the dogs. Marty did quite well as did Padme' - hmmm tomorrow Juniors. "Chloe" still wants to go over ground. Progress was made on other dogs as well.
Betsy let me bunk with her in the cold tent for the night. Val slept in her van.
Note to self: Do not spend the night with a sick person in a tent as it will come to get you later in the week.
Sunday was a leisurely day until the Junior run. Ryan ran Padme' with Sammy looking and screaming 'take me, take me'. Ryan ran back with Padme' (she never went down)as I handed Sammy off and off they went. We all waited - was Sammy mad enough to do it? YES!!!!!! Her first Junior Leg. She can do Masters quite well and qualified as the bye dog but 5 years to her first Junior pass.
Marty was next and after going potty, although never lifting his leg, he went down and worked great. Just too much time.

Betsy, Ryan and I then did some great practice in the buried Junior den and I think Padme' now gets she needs to go down first, "Chloe" ummmm not yet.
Now for the pics---"Happy" needed some pics for the yearbook - here are a couple that I took. He is so darn cute.

ChTC Cairngorm Shot in the Dark RA SE CG

After struggling with the "Recall" portion of the Senior Earthdog trial Happy finally, and very strongly, passed his third and final Senior Earthdog test Saturday morning. He is such a wonderful hunter and I was very proud of him.

Saturday afternoons trial we moved up into the Master test. We were paired with Dix and Mary Mac, a border terrier. I was so glad, I know they are both experienced. Our judge, Marie Quarles, is great and was very patient with my inexperience. Although we didn't pass Happy did an absolutely wonderful job. He came when I called him, he checked out what I asked him to look at, he found the rats both time. Our downfall was getting him out in 15 seconds. I didn't have any knee pads and I opened up the 'hatch' the wrong way and back he went into the tunnel. No worries, we'll get it with no problems.

Thank you Ryan for your training help, Thank you Val and Vicki for your support and encouragement. Thank you Pat Gentry for such a cool, game, little doggie. FYI, ChTC is Champion of the Terminally Cute.

A belated announcement...

Congratulations to Casey on the arrival of "The Fab Five" of the Border Terrier world!


Molly delivered 4 girls and 1 boy earlier in the month.
You can learn more about Casey and the puppies here:
tiltedkiltborderterriers.com

Earthdog this weekend in Turner, Oregon

http://www.oteec.org/

Come on out! It is fun, rain or shine.

Waiting for a Junior run!

Health news for dogs...

This article on stem cell therapy for dogs is pretty exciting. Not only what it means for dogs, but I am sure it futures the technology for humans as well.
http://cbs11tv.com/pets/stem.cell.therapy.2.1139429.html

the answers

I figured out how to make my above-ground earthdog tunnels dark just like buried tunnels are.

Practice the dogs after dark.

Figuring stuff like this out is why I get the big bucks.

More pics

(from the bottom up)
Jas and Rain are playing through the expen. Vicki, I wish I could say that was how they were introduced- slowly and carefully, through the bars of a pen. But actually, they met when Rain jumped into the pen holding Jas and she ignored him totally. Then they became fast friends, as you can see in the next picture- that's two dog tongues sticking out.

In the other picture, you can't see Jas because she's wearing her Camo, but the hand is petting the puppy.

And then there is Vicki, Betsy, Dawn, Jas (in Vicki's coat) and I on the ferry. Val and Dena stopped for a pop so missed our boat by a few cars. We saw a pod of Orcas as soon as we left the dock.

Wet Whidbey Weekend

Ryan, Greg, Val and Dena all got to beautiful Hathor Farm on Whidbey Island on Friday afternoon. We had the motorhome, Ryan had a tent. We got all the xpens, tarps and canopys set up and enjoyed a lovely late summer evening.

Val and Sully (ScotchBroom Thistle The Patriot JE) collect the ribbon for his first Senior leg on Saturday afternoon. The morning started out rainy, the rain beginning late on Friday. Luckily, we were blessed with the sun and mild breezes soon after the sun came up.

Betsy shows the thumbs up for Senior leg #2 on Happy (Cairngorm Shot in the Dark RA,JE)







Please note that Dena is the one in the yellow Oregon Duck sweatshirt and in an apparant immitation of "Super Duck"...sorely needed on a very wet weekend. Alex (Lady Kinloch of Wolfpit SE) earned her first Master Earthdog leg this weekend.

Ryan (Of Westhill training kennels) put a Senior leg on Annie (Scotch Broom Angie Oakley JE) owned by Carol Onstad. He also put he final Master leg on a Parsons named Cooper (for a client).

Betsy, Vicki and Dawn Phillips all came up following the Cairntastic play day (held by the Columbia River Cairn Terrier Club) in Portland on Saturday. They arrived on Saturday night around 8 PM, we got their tent and canopy set up under the light of headlights from a couple of cars and sat around for a short bit before falling into bed after a very long day.

Saturday night in the tent with Betsy, Dawn and Vicki was a very long wet night. There was major leaking and even though I had said there was room in the motor home if they needed it, no one moved inside. Vicki didn't sleep and they all had wet gear or selves when they popped out of the tent in the morning.

The intro dens had been moved to the other side of the farm, so it was difficult to know exactly what was going on with the intro dogs. Vicki was like a mad scientist stratigizing on who to enter when to accomplish the most training for each of the fairly new dogs she had with her. She had decided to enter Intro and Junior with most of them, so she was extremely busy and Dawn had a real education about earth dog! As it turned out we all seemed to be running in different directions most of the day, so didn't spend any time hanging out. The wet, windy weather didn't aid in the sitting around department either!

Update on The little Girls

Mary's little girls are growing up...4 months old today!
Foxglove AKA Martha and Petal AKA Lily of the Valley are at home with their Forever Families.
Jasmine AKA Daphne is attending Ryan's Boot Camp and
Cricket, AKA Lucy, is visiting Vicki's while her forever Mom Fran's ankle heals from an injury...NOT caused by sweet Cricket.
Here she is letting us know just how much she enjoys being groomed!