Peaceful night

There is nothing more relaxing than spending a cool fall evening with your buddies.

• Happy in his "downstairs" rocking chair,
• Oz on his favorite perching pillow on the couch
• Tom Kitty-Dog curled up in Oz's hand-me-down puppy bed.

AAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, I'm in Heaven on Earth.

Tom Sawyer appears

As if to prove her extreme intelligence once again, Tally just "Tom Sawyer'ed" Rain out of a bone.

After a very stressful evening dealing with skunk on Rain, some on Tally, and some on me (that one took a while, I couldn't figure out why Rain smelled okay close up but smelled worse from a slight distance), the dogs have settled in to chew bones.

Rain is chewing a rib bone that came to him fresh a few days ago. It's clean now, but still a yummy and high-value bone.
Tally has been watching him from a distance of 6 inches for the last hour. I finally got on the ground next to her and teased her- "You were in this house all day with that bone and never touched it, and now that Rain has it, you want it, huh?" She wagged and when I handed her a nearby Nylabone, held it tight with her paws and started to chew.

I moved back to the computer chair and looked back at the dogs. Tally was chewing her Nylabone right in Rain's face, and as he lifted off the rib bone to look at what Tally had, she scooted a few inches away from him. He scooted toward her and she turned a little further. He scooted again and reached his neck out as far as it would go, the rib bone lying between his paws.
Tally jumped up off the Nylabone, grabbed the rib bone and moved across the room, her back to Rain, to lay down and chew it. Rain investigated the Nylabone, decided what he had was better, then looked between his front legs for the rib bone. Missing it, he looked first at me, trying to hold my laughter in, then reached out and carefully took the Nylabone.

Interestingly, if anyone is wondering what to do about skunk, I learned just last week that an immediate reaction is best (before it "sets") so we all ran back to the house and pulled out the hose. Rain was bathed with all the dog shampoo in the house and, when that ran out, some of the human shampoo. He then got heavily sprayed with two different types of dog coat conditioner, both scented, then got rinsed.

Then, this was the best part. I had just bought a huge bottle of unscented, plain Listerine, to use on Sammy as I was taught by Dawn (more on that later). I thought it might do something, so he got half the bottle worked into his coat, then got rinsed. Then into the house to dry off and warm up, and while still damp, was misted down with 1 part water to 1 part Listerine. Put into the laundry room to let that settle in, took care of Tally and myself (which were no where near as bad as Rain), then let him back in. Almost NO scent, only on his right shoulder, where he had actually been wet from the skunk spray. Yay for another use for Listerine!

Out of the mouths of babes

Been meaning to post this for a while.
As Moses Lake earthdog a few weeks ago, another Cairn owner, Clare, was there with her two wonderful boy Cairns and her human family. Scotch earned his Junior title there last year and was working on Senior. Her younger one, a Wolfpit dog, liked to run through the tunnels but mostly wanted to stare at the rats, erupting into work only when he could hear Scotch working above him.

On Sunday, after his two failed attempts at junior, I was saying good-bye to the little dog and teasing him about learning from his brother before next year. Clare's son, maybe 9 or 10 years old, piped up, "My dad says he's a union dog!"
Predicting where this was going, I turned and grinned at him. "What?"
"My dad says he just doesn't want to work, and that makes him a union dog!"

Although I think that maybe the dog was just holding out for equitable treatment of the other dogs and the rats.

Emergency Alarm idea

This idea was on a list I belong to.

Take your car keys to bed with you at night. If you hear someone in your house, press the alarm on the key fob (or course this is assuming you are lucky enough to have one of these..I am not, having lost the only one I had and too cheap to order a new one). The alarm will continue going of until your car battery dies or you turn it off with the button on the fob.

Remember to carry the keys in your hand as you approach your car in parking lots, for the same reason.

Here is an alarm system you have already paid for. Most assailants do not want the attention that the noise and flashing lights would draw.

A great idea, so I am passing it on!

Happy Laps return, Daschunds (1), Bunnies (0), Betsy (0)

Let me first let you know how much I love Happy... Silly little Black booger that he is. Tonight he tested me and lived to tell. You all know him, cute, funny, terrorist-terrier. Tenacious is his middle name.

After almost 3 years of various agility training I ventured to a training session out in the country. I rode with a friend, Heather, and her black Pug, Jac Jac. An awesome agility team that swore by this instructor.

When we arrived it was dark. It never occured to me that we would be running outside but it wasn't raining. The barn was closed up, we were the first to arrive. Potty the boys and wait patiently for everyone to show. Happy spots the agility equipment outside behind the barn and realizes what he was there to do.. Mr Waggy Tale is up and ready. The ladies that had arrived for class are talking about the grounds and wondered if the bunnies were all gone... Bunnies?? No worries, there aren't any steers here and he is totally focused and excited about the tunnels and jumps he sees.

Everyone is there, introductions are done and the class begins. First is a beautiful Rottie girl, 24" jumps, just a quick sequence; jump, jump, tunnel, a-frame, jump, jump, tunnel, table. Next is a great lookin' Ridgeback girl, nice runs both of them. Happy is focused on the agility runs, excited to take his turn. Then Woody, a golden. Beautiful boy and nice run. The neighbor dogs start barking.. Happy takes notice but when it's Jac Jac's turn he refocuses on the agility stuff. Jac Jac does wonderfully.

Then... (drum roll please) the neighbor dogs start barking. Happy swings to look at them, the other handlers say "oh no, not the Dachshunds!"... oh.... my.... friggin' God... NOT DACHSHUNDS!! Thems is hunting dogs, Rat hunting dogs!! Holy Crap. No, Happy is focused, he loves agility and had only 1/2 of his dinner portion before we left home, I have cheese and the rest of his kibble. We'll be fine, the weeners have quieted down.

Up to the start line we go, Happy prancing and watching me with every step he takes. I hand him a piece of cheese, pat him on his little cute fuzzy head and swing my hand to let him know to come to heel. I slip the lead off his head and tell him to stay, he's watching me like he loves me and the cheese I have in my pocket. One more stay command, I stand upright and THE DAMNED DACHSHUNDS START BARKING AGAIN!!! Happy spins on his hauches and launches himself in the opposite direction of the jump, off toward the fenceline to put those damned weeners in their place. By the time he got within 15 feet of the fence I had the whistle out, whistled once and he spun and headed toward me. After 3 bounds toward me his nose went up as his body came down... oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THE BUNNIES!!

The hunt was on, I was screwed. The hunt continued for what seemed 3 hours. I called him: "Happy, come here, check this!!" Over he came, took one sniff and went back to his scent line where the bunnies really are! Damn... I told the other handlers if he makes eye contact (yeah, black dog in the dark, brilliant) tell him down. That didn't ever happen. The instructor said "walk towards him" I said: "I can't see him"(black dog in the dark)... she said, "yeah, I know" The only thing I didn't try was falling on the ground and crying, the method used when he was chasing the steers in Forest Grove. I'm not sure how long this continued, time was of no matter to me anymore... it just meant Hap would live that much longer.

Finally, Happy just walked up to me... just that easy... "here I am, wanna do some agility now?".

He spent the rest of the class in a box in the car. The instructor offered private lessons on a long line.

Now that we are home He is digging through the toy box.. No doubt looking for a friggin' bunny. Oz, my sweet boy, is snuggled on the couch next to me... I hope Hap finds the bunny.

Off I go to bed. Thanks for listening.

Schutzhund last weekend

I made another Schutzhund practice last weekend and got some great video.

Don't mess with Rain!


And uh, don't mess with... me?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KULA!!!!!!!!!

OCTOBER 19, 2000
You all know what this little girl means to me. She was the beginning of a wonderful journey. I will always be thankful for that. She continues to enrich us daily with her wisdom, humor and tenacious terrier training...she trains all new members of the household. Her latest charge is Sully. Right now she is teaching him not to jump up and try to grab popcorn off of my lap. It is really funny. He won't challenge her and he is so frustrated. Wishing her many, many more!

Social times

Lest this blog become all about competition results and sway away from why we began it (to share our crazy stories about our crazy selves and our sometimes-sane dogs), I'd like to share a bit about the evening Val, Vicki and I had here in Portland tonight. (and Betsy, we missed you!)

We met up at Vicki's after she got off work, ready to head to our should-be sponser, Sushi Takahashi. Val had brought six dogs down for the eye clinic and Vicki had a few extras there already, bringing the total number of dogs to somewhere around "loud." They all pitched a fit when I arrived, Lou (Hattie's child, lives with Janice and Bill) crying to be let out of his crate (he couldn't believe he was being treated like a dog). His pitch was driving Homer crazy, who was in turn driving US crazy, but we didn't realize that was the problem until we were back at the house after dinner. All in all, it was a ton of dogs with a lot of nice boys who could mostly play together, except for the one girl coming in season and messing everyone up.

As we were seated at Takahashi we all made faces at the loud people seated at the next table over. It was hard to hear the stories of Vicki's bad day/week at work and hard for me to tell the story of Annie's 3rd Master leg today, but we were all trying hard to tune them out.
About halfway through our meal, Val and I both heard from that table a woman's voice saying, "When you do that, I want to light you on fire." We made eye contact and both used every ounce of maturity we possess (I might have borrowed some from Val here) to not laugh out loud. I filled Vicki in on the statement and she laughed into her napkin.

Fortune cookies arrived and poor Val got something about her lucky number being 7, but since I don't think you can play powerball at 7 7 7 7 7, I'm not sure it was that helpful. Vicki's was the best- "You deserve a good time after a hard day" or something which accuratly reflected the evening we were having.

As we were paying, a young-ish (my age bracket, as oppossed to Vicki's age bracket) woman with hair nearly as short as mine came over to talk to Vicki. She asked lots of questions, asking if Vicki rode a motorcycle (because of her waterproof pants), asking about the castle on Vicki's sweatshirt (which was from Prague) and then mentioning her cruise "with my husband" to Canada and how that has her interested in castles.....

If you're laughing now, just picture trying to stand there in the restaurant and continue to be socially acceptable by not laughing out loud.... the three of us barely made it out the door before Val suggested that what that woman needed was more Saki and Vicki and I began mocking her backtracking to the "husband" line (which we all know is a classic I-wasn't-actually-flirting-with-you move when one starts to feel rejected).

All in all a humorous evening with great people and a houseful of wonderful dogs. I left Val and Vicki filling in bubbles on the paperwork for the 207 dogs they are taking to the eye clinic tomorrow and came home to get some rest before Annie's 4th try in Masters tomorrow.

Sammy, JE

After FIVE YEARS of work, Sammy has earned her Junior Earthdog title in a matter of three weeks. Her first leg was under Phil Frielich at Turner and her second under Dix Dixon at Moses Lake.

Sammy is a testament to never giving up, or something like that. It never was a matter of her wanting to work the rats- it was a matter of convincing her to work the rats without help from a person. We got there, and have now started down the path of Senior tests.

This title for Sammy gives her titles in SIX venues. I believe this makes her the most versatile Cairn around. While there are many who have higher titles than her, and some who have more titles than her, I can't think of a Cairn who has titles in a wider range of official sports than Sammy does.

Conformation
Obedience
Rally
Agility
Flyball
Earthdog
CGC (if you want to count it, that makes 7 different venues)

Even happier than her recent successes in competition is the fact that she's back to acting like a normal dog in the home. She relaxes in the middle of my floor instead of trying to hole up under the computer desk. She races around playing with Rain. She looks confused when I shout at her for making eye contact with Tally.
I'm happy things are getting back to normal but already fearing the next few months- after all, she's due back in heat in December!

Kinloch's High Hopes is Two!

Jimmy, Kinloch's High Hopes, turned two on Monday.

He was born minutes after The NW PAWS, including his Mama Mary, arrived home after their 2007 trek to Montgomery. While everyone else was unpacking the van, Aunty Betsy mentioned that Mary was making interesting grunting sounds...good thing she noticed!

Tally's 20th Master Earthdog Leg

Last weekend at Moses Lake Tally earned her 20th Master Earthdog leg under judge John Shuster. She was also sporting a mohawk, which not quite enough people thought was as cute as it really is.

Her Senior run on Saturday left a little to be desired. She left the rats but stayed in the tunnel and returned to them before the judge could, at my request, pull them so she couldn't have them back.
When it was time for the recall I waited for her to pop above ground, which she quickly did. However, she made only a quick glance toward the judge before disappearing back down the tunnel, which she NEVER does. I waited and she came above ground again. I went toward her, she ran in a quick circle around the judge and WENT BACK DOWN THE TUNNEL. Now I was mad.

Since she had already failed, I didn't feel a need to follow the rules and remain at the main entrance. I went over to where the judge was and called her from there. She came back up and ran over to investigate the area, but when I stepped toward her, she RAN FROM ME and went back down. I was almost too shocked to respond. The next time she came up and went to the judge, I tapped the side of the large drum the rats were hidden in and called her to me. She ignored me as she checked out the quarry end of the tunnel. I stepped over and grabbed her before she could run off again, then held her over the drum so she could see the cage and feel appropriately silly for not coming when I told her I had them.

My theory on this incident is that Tally has never been bad, and she just had to try being bad once to see how it would feel. Since she hasn't been bad since then, I'm assuming she's back to her normal, totally non-evil Tally self. Although she is still sporting the mohawk.

Looky what I won!!!!

A lot of us put our tickets into the pot for this quilt. I was the lucky one! I wanted it for Sully, he doesn't have one of Barb's wonderful quilts. It is too pretty. It is in my room

Still no quilt for Sully, and several of my friends are irked at me for winning. Good thing I am a good winner....

Right?

The official picture!

Here is the official real picture with the judge on Saturday. Thank you Jennifer M.

Our next adventure

Next month at Argus Ranch in Auburn, several of us are going to try our hand at Teacup Dog Agility! I am getting so excited. Kula hasn't competed since her first ACL tear and that was nearly two years ago! Kona will have his first agility experience. Betsy will be there, Heidi, Ryan and Vicki. Anyone is invited to join our merry band! If you don't want to compete, come and cheer us on! November 14 and 15th.

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...