sclmarm

Here is some track video of Zach from this last track season.  He really improved in all of his events... like by feet!

A little of Zach and Nub at the FF DAM team trial.

I uploaded another 29 pictures that are mostly of Beep and a couple of Cody.  Here are some of my favorites.

Beep trying a Border Collie style compared to Max.  Beep's ears crack me up!


To be a stock dog handler apparently you need a goatee... hmmmm... I don't think I want it that bad!


Peek sheepies... here I come:)

It was hot, but Zach and I had a great time herding up at Brigands with everyone.  This was Zach's first experience and he said he liked it.  The sheep were super heavy, but he hung in there trying to move.  I think he'll try again:)  Beep was very kind and quiet on his sheep.  He did have a few yahoo moments, but was a very good boy.  He's getting there.  Max was a star!  Took direction well and makes me look good.  He is such a good boy.  Our walk up practice in the yard seemed to transfer to the sheep.  Jorgan showed me how to start teaching him to drive.  That Max is just such a good all around dog!  Here are some pictures from today.  We borrowed Tyler's(Meg's husband) nice camera.  Thanks Tyler!

Happy Fourth!!

More pictures of herding.  I still have a few to upload too. 
s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff74/sclmarm/Herding%207-4-09/

Beep's favorite orange bumper got stuck in a tree and we could not get it down at the swimming hole:(  Zach threw sticks and rocks at it trying to knock it down, but it just wouldn't fall.  Poor Beep swam around for quite a while looking for it.  Max and Zipper did fetch a few of the sticks back so that Zach could try again, but alas it was not to be.  We'll keep checking to see if it fell and retrieve it, but we'll try and find another one for him. 

We chose not to go to the regional this year.  We didn't have any qualified besides Nub in Steeplechase.  Argus is a nice facility, but I just couldn't get excited about going this year and paying for all that gas.  Part of it is DAM team all on one day and the first day, 100 gazillion degrees last year and Carlton trial right in my back yard.  I'm sad to hear that it is smaller though:(  I do want to go again sometime soon.

So, today it was take my parents dog while they go on a cruise to Alaska for seven days.  Penny is a giant Corgi/Shepherd mix, we think.  She weighs 60lbs!  She also comes with a bunch of special directions for her treats in the evening:)  Too funny!  It was also Carlton Fun Days, so no swimming down at the usual swimming hole, so we headed outside Yamhill to another spot I knew of.  Bad thing about this swimming hole is the dust where you park.  It's also not part of a park, so some garbage around, but not to bad.  When we got there I saw a motor cycle and there was a guy drinking a beer on a van seat in the shade.  I checked out the hole and visited with him for a while.  Nice enough guy, trying to enjoy some quiet.  The dogs loved it and even Rosie and Raleigh swam across the river.  A bunch of tired doggies around here now, the best kind:) 

Hope everyone that did go to the regional had a good time!

We got permission for dry campers to camp at a local church's grass field about six to seven blocks from the trial site.  Yahoo!  Tell you friends:)

Finally got around to uploading some Zach and Nub video.  Speaking of Zach he comes home on Tuesday from Granite where it was SNOWING and 30 degrees today(June 21st).  Pretty crazy!  He's had a good time, but didn't get to work as much as he would have liked.  I know he had a good time though.  It will be nice to have him home again so he can work on that wee, crazy Nub!

This is where the CAT July USDAA trial will be held. 

It was fun to go to the Redmond and not show horses!  Yahoo!!  The RV park was a long way away from the stadium, so I commuted with the boys and kept them in the Yukon.  I've never kept them inside and didn't bring anything to keep them inside.   Also, I thought the footing was pretty hard, although not as dusty as it can get when showing horses.  It worked, but like Prineville much better.

The Beep was either pretty good or off the wall crazy!  Advanced Standard on Saturday we had a bar and came out of the weave poles and didn't fix it, so an E.  He was steerable and listening.  Downed on the table nicely, but did pop an elbow up.  Steeplechase was a disaster!  Good grief!  Knocked the triple, knocked the double, tried to get it back together then missed the last tunnel.  ARG!  That was frustrating!  Came back for Grand Prix and felt focused and was going to give it our best shot after that crazy Steeplechase!  Much better, very steerable, one knocked bar because of a late front cross on my part.  Even left the double up with a tight rear cross.  It was awesome and our best run of the weekend.  Would have been third place if not for the bar.  Advanced Jumpers I pushed him into the wrong end of the tunnel, but he was listening and trying.  One bar too.  Still not to bad.  Sunday Advanced Standard.  We held it together, with only one spin and all the bars up!  Yahoo!  Good for second and a Q!  Pairs, what the heck!  Little to much gas in the tank or something!  First three obstacles were good, then what the heck happened.  Any forward motion sent him into the straosphere.  So, off course on our half... sorry other half of the pair:(  We got to try the second half with Rune and same thing.  Simple post turn with a tiny step backwards he read as a rear cross and was headed for an off course jump over ten feet away!  Called him back and we were able to finish clean, although ugly. 

So good things were got all contacts, including stopping two on, two off on the teeter, good table with fast downs.  Need to work on that jump thing, but it seems he is just to hyped up at a trial to care.  We'll keep working on it though.  We also need to work on a stalky dogwalk.  It's loosing us way to much time!

Did you know that you can't run Nub like Beep?  Ha!  Again, late front cross caused a bar to come down, and then I went off course.  Sheesh!  Oh well, we gave it a try. 

The courses were not gimmes and were fun.  I had a good time going solo, although I miss my help setting up and tearing down!  I had a good time watching Steeplechase finals.  Woo hoo to Kim J and Skillet who rocked that true Steeplechase all about speed course!

Boy, I don't know how I feel about this move.  I've done many a regional Morgan horse show there.  We rent golf carts because trying to walk around that place will kill you, everything is so spread out.  I've had my rider on there way in the in gate, jumped in the golf cart, floored it all the way to the opposite end and my horse was on it's second pass.  The RV parking is somewhat closer than I thought it would be, although I think I'll take my bike.  That will make it faster to get to and from the arena since I like to keep my dogs in the trailer.  Interesting turn of events.  I'm glad I get to spend a weekend with my dudes doing agility no matter where it is!

These are actually from CAT's CPE trial, but I totally want to get this series of weave pictures.  Zach ran Beep in Snooker and did an awesome job.  They smoked it!  Beep was funny because when Zach took him out, he's looking back at me like Zach we forgot our mommy:)  Set him up on the start line and he was all business.  After they were done, he's like Zach our mommy is over there.  What a weirdo!

Anyway, here are the pictures...
http://www.ninasphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/20-24in_snooker_l345c_041909/img_494835
http://www.ninasphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/20-24in_snooker_l345c_041909/img_494937
http://www.ninasphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/20-24in_snooker_l345c_041909/img_495040
http://www.ninasphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/20-24in_snooker_l345c_041909/img_495143
http://www.ninasphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/20-24in_snooker_l345c_041909/img_495244
http://www.ninasphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/20-24in_snooker_l345c_041909/img_495346
http://www.ninasphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/20-24in_snooker_l345c_041909/img_495448

I ran him tonight and sheesh he is hard to run.  He'll send a little way away, but for the most part, wants to be right by your side.  I'm not used to running to every obstacle like that.  Thank God I'm running him in jumpers with no contacts!  He is so used to Zach zooming by that he has to yell at me to hurry up and catch up. You know though, for as frustrating as he can be I just love that little guy!

I've often wondered about this.  I wasn't sure if they calculated the "carbon cost" of building and maintaining trains and such into it's footprint. Come to find out, they don't.  Some food for thought anyway.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090608/sc_afp/climatewarmingtransportcarbonlifestyle

Zach was leaning on the door jam of the bathroom this morning and he looked like some male model.  Sheesh!  Six pack and the whole nine yards.  He also has a beard right now too!  Good grief!  Where did my little boy go! 

Well I'm officially out of school for the summer! Yahoo!  Boy the year went fast.  What a fun group of guys and one gal I had this year.  They kept me totally entertained!  It was nice to have this class after last years ding dongs.  I hope and pray that they all have a safe and fun summer.  As for me, a little agility and becoming a grandma are on my agenda.  Hopefully a little herding too.

I'll be running Cousin Nub in Advanced jumpers in Prineville.  Please don't kill me Wee Nub who runs in front of people barking when they run slow. He just needs one leg in Advanced Jumpers to be in all Masters.  So, it will be Beep, Max, Nub and I heading out to Prineville by ourselves in a few weeks. 

Here's some Nessa video from the FF DAM team trial.  She did some odd duck stuff like going back into the tunnel on the jumpers course.  Go figure:)

No agility trials for us, just LOTS of swimming down at the Yamhill.  The dogs have been swimming eight or nine times in the last couple of weeks.  They are all looking more trim and fit already.  Max is also looking great!  Not stiff and swimming confidently.  He is such a great boy!  Nub got confused at which toy was his and then went over to the other bank with it and left it.  ARG! Good boy Max let me direct him over to find it and bring it back.  Max and Nub got new life vests yesterday.  Wee Nub wears the tiniest one they have.  He is so stinking cute:)

Last week of school next week for Meg, Zach and I.  Yahoo!  Last week I didn't have to teach very much in the afternoons because of field trips and swimming lessons.  This week we have one more Tuesday morning field trip to go looking for real dinosaurs bones at a local vineyard.  Should be fun.  Zach has his final orchestra concert of the year on Tuesday evening. 

Next trial for me is Prineville USDAA... all by myself!  Zach will be with my parents and Meg can't be that far from home.  First trial I've ever done by myself before.  Should be fun though.  Beep and I will be chasing Advanced legs and we're going to give Grand Prix and Steeplechase another try.

Better late then never right... here is some Zippy video from the last couple of trials.  More to come.
CPE trial at Barb's with a little commentary by Zach:)DAM Team in May

This has been a different weekend, but a good one!  Zach is off with Meagan and Tyler primitive camping about half way to Tillamook.  I've been hanging with five dogs, Raleigh, Rosie, Nub, Max and Beep.  I can easily do these five dogs by myself.  We've been going down to the Yamhill to swim every day since Friday.  Beep, Max and Nub are the swimmers and Raleigh and Rosie are the sunbathers:)  Beep has already lost a little weight from all the swimming, so I'll have to keep an eye on that.  Max was a little stiff from the extra activity, but not to bad.  He was running into the water with gusto to get his yellow frisbee yesterday which is so cool to see.  Max is a scardy swimmer but has really gained confidence with his life vest:)  Beep was actually bringing his toy out of the water for me to throw again.  Yahoo!  He can be like a shark out there just waiting to take whatever toy is thrown out.  Nub does a lot of running back and forth on the beach squishing a floating Kong or tennis ball.  The little guy gets cold fairly quickly, so I don't throw it a lot for him.  He's game to jump right in when I do throw it though!  He also wears a life vest to try and help him stay warm and he just so wee and cute in it:) 

I've also been playing a lot of Civilazation Revelotion on the XBox 360.  With Zach gone, I got to hog it:)  Hung out six loads of laundry on the line.  Love the smell and feel of laundry dried outside!  Back to work tomorrow.  Only nine more days of school left!!  Woo Hoo!!

Here is some video from the FF DAM trial. 
More Beep video from one day of a FF CPE trial in March.

Boy was it warm, at least not as warm as the regional last year, but warmer than my preferred 65-70 degrees.  Thank God no rain though!  We had four dogs running on three different teams.  Noisy Boys with Beep, Nub and Sly, Les Femme Fatal, Dally and Nessa and Zipper on Zipper and Bucky's Epic Adventure.  No DAM Q's for any of us:(  Zipper came the closest and was near the cut off.  Noisy Boys stayed consistently in the high teens and Nessa and Dally were near the cutoff until relay.  Oh well... another excuse to run with friends on teams again!

Beep had some great moments.  We hung it together to make it through a tough standard course.  We had a couple of knocked bars, but didn't E and that was unusual.  He had some super tight turns and was listening, but a bar here and there was still a problem.  I don't think it is a lack of jumping knowledge, but he just wants to get there faster or I do something stupid while he is jumping.  USDAA Beep is always way high as the energy is high.  The cool thing is that we used to fly to pieces when he was wound up like that, but now we can actually remain a team, so it's coming together, just a bit more fine tuning.  There are still moments when he chooses the correct line and just booked, leaving me in the dust.  Good grief!  His times were consistently at the top even with a spin or making him hold contacts so I can catch up:)  Most of our runs were respectable with the exception of our zero Snooker.  Knocked first bar, then took a jump. He missed a weave pole entry in relay, but our other team mate had already E'd so I didn't take him back. 

Zip had some moments of brilliance.  He is also a little higher at a USDAA trial:)  He's getting there and did pretty good for a baby dog on some tough courses.  Whew!  Nessa also looked good.  She did a weirdo flip the wrong way out of a tunnel, then went back in in jumpers and E'd.  Meg and Nessa rocked Performance 22" Snooker and won.  Yahoo! 

Nub and Zach had a good Snooker run too.  Zach loves charging around like a ding dong racking up points:)  They also had a nice jumpers run and did a good job helping out the team. 

Here are some pictures from Joe Camp...
I thought Nub was a two foot hopper, but this looks more like single striding. 
I don't know many little dogs that single stride.  Joe got two photos of him weaving like this.

I've been very busy lately!  We haven't trialed since the April CPE, but will be getting back into the saddle again this weekend at the Fleet Feet DAM team trial.  Zach and I are down in to teen number of days left of school.  Yahoo and where did the time go!  I'm excited and ready for a break. Zach played his last concert of the year.  It was really good!  Mr. Messina(yes, he's related to Jody Messina) had the band cranked up and sounding good!  Woo hoo!  The orchestra did a great job too.  The younger bands were also there and were of good quality this year.  I was pleasantly surprised! 

I was looking forward to going to the BAAD trial in June, but saw it has moved:(  Zach and I were going to meet grandma and grandpa over there and do some trialing.  Zach goes and spends two or more weeks helping grandpa out.  That exchange won't work now.  Oh well... onto the bus Zach goes. 

Meg got married last weekend.  That was a lot of work, but exciting.  Thank God she went for low key and inexpensive!  It was nice:)  It's weird not to have her around all the time, but she is close by here in town and we still have two of her dogs.  She'll still be running dogs this weekend and there will be a surprise come the first part of July(I think it causes explosions of grey hair:).