New Senior Earthdog!

ScotchBroom Thistle The Patriot SE otherwise known as Sully! This weekend, passed his final leg of his Senior test! It was not pretty, 87 seconds to the quarry, 84 second recall BUT, he was running TO me!!! Of course he had come up and goofed around looking for the rats above ground, went back under looking for them. He popped up the false, saw me bending over the entry on my hands and knees and game racing above ground to see what I was up to. The bond is growing stronger! I think I was more excited about that response than the title (well, maybe not quite..) ...we are moving forward! We will continue to work on long line in open fields and move to off lead in big enclosed spaces...next May, we will work on the Masters Q's!!!

Garden Gnomes

Padme and Marty are keeping watch over Grandma Zoe's garden, while Vicki and Spirit and Val and Sully play in Philly.

I thought of telling everyone that this is how we produce and grow Kinloch puppies...

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.