Leatherstocking Cluster

On the 19th I got on a bus at 4am to drive to Philadelphia for Cornell's final football game of the season (and thus the last marching band performance of the season). It was a gorgeous day, Cornell even managed a WIN and the band, as always, was awesome. Returned home around 11pm...

...only to get up at 6 for a dog show. Sometimes I doubt my sanity. It turned out to be another good day. Queezle was first up ay 8:30. She was SO excited to be at a show - this was her first conformation show since the first weekend of July, and her first show of any sort since mid-October. After our down and back the judge asked me to slow her down - yeah right! She ended up going Best of Breed. The photo is of the Q with four of the other Tervs entered - from left to right they are Tag, Molly, Storm, Savvy and Queezle.

Next was Belle the Vizsla. She went Winners Bitch over one other entry, giving her her 8th point. She is now officially over halfway done!

I also showed Will the Shetland Sheepdog puppy. This was his third show ever and first indoor show. He still isn't thrilled about the table, but he stands solidly and is a happy camper gaiting around the ring. He won his class.

The Q was even more psyched for going into Group. Talk about fluffed, puffed and ready to roll. Her down and back was controlled, but on the go-around she took off like she thought she was running the Kentucky Derby! Maniac. At the end the judge had each dog go around one at a time, at which point Queezle gaited like a dream. We didn't end up placing, but I was quite pleased with my wicked wild dog and a handler who had been watching from outside the ring said that she is the cleanest dog coming and going that he has seen in years. Go Q!

Next up is Eukanuba. Only a few more weeks...

Dog Etiquette: Puppies in Vet Clinics

Hokey has come up with cancer in his nose, so for the past few weeks he has been going in to the vet hospital at Cornell every day for radiation. To minimize driving but still avoid Hokey staying at the hospital, I have been picking him up and dropping him off every other day while my mom takes the opposite days (so he spends one night at home, one night with me, etc). He is now halfway through his treatment and doing well.

Today the waiting area was quite busy when I came in to pick him up. One of the techs came out with Hokey, and as I walked over to them a guy came in with a Border Collie puppy, probably between 3 and 4 months old. First mistake: he had it on a flexi. Not even close to appropriate for that kind of setting. Flexis are great for outdoor walks, but should never be used indoors, especially in a place where there are lots of people and dogs. Even if you put it on lock, there is still a chance that button will get knocked by accident and your dog could get into all kinds of trouble before you notice. Second mistake: he is letting the puppy go up to other dogs.

Why is this a poor decision? For one thing, he's in a VET HOSPITAL. He has no way to know why any of the other dogs/animals are in there, and by letting his puppy socialize arbitrarily he could be endangering its health. Second, he has no way to know if those other dogs are friendly! This could start a fight at any point, and considering his puppy's age, a bad experience could seriously impact its future life and behavior. Always, always ask if the other dog likes puppies before allowing your pup to go up to another dog.

Hokey does not particularly like puppies anyway, and the clinic is a stressful place for him, further lowering his tolerance. He curled his lip, which the tech couldn't see and the guy completely ignored. Luckily I got there at that point and pulled the puppy back myself, informing the guy that he should not allow his puppy to approach strange dogs. I can only hope that it sunk in.

SOTC Agility

The SOTC fall agility trials were a couple weekends ago. Tia was the star of the weekend, qualifying both days in Excellent Jumpers! She is now well on her way to her MJP3. As for that aframe contact...

Queezle was just entered on Sunday. She was WILD and didn't qualify in either run, but ran with me, followed my directions and wasn't obnoxious, which was our goal for the weekend.

I also ran Dani in Jumpers, and she qualified on Sunday. She now only needs one more leg for her MJP!

Flash

Yesterday I said goodbye to my best and oldest friend, Flash. Ever since we picked her up from the breeder on Valentine's Day 1998, she was my partner in crime. She was a one of a kind dog, and I would not be the person or trainer that I am today without her.

Most of Flash and my exploits belonged on a bloopers reel - barking with a dumbbell in her mouth, barking so hard she fell off the pause table in agility, sailing over contacts, stealing food from kids sitting ringside, going belly-up on down stays, waving at the judge during conformation.

She was, after all, a super-attitudey Corgi paired with a seven year old kid. It's amazing we ever got anything right. But learn we did, and we soared:

- first junior handler team to earn a VCD1

- first junior handler team to earn an RAE (and with only one NQ in her entire rally career)

- Best Junior Handler at the 2007 PWCCA National Specialty

- competitor in Junior Showmanship at Westminster 2009

- 10th Pem to earn a CT, youngest handler to ever do so

There are hundreds of stories that I could tell about Flash. The time I ran into a tree while herding at the National, which ended up being Flash's best herding run ever (and I can't remember it!). The time she swam across a flooded creek to bring our sheep back to the barn. The story of her passing VST track (and the failed tracks along the way). Doing a musical freestyle routine to the Baby Elephant Walk. Marching in parades while pulling her little chariot all decked out with roses. Socializing with kids and adults of all ages. She was truly an awesome dog.

She retired from agility in October last year when she was starting to show signs of degenerative myelopathy, and since then has been in a steady decline. When she, the dog who did everything at top speed, was no longer able to move around on her own, we knew that it was time. Yesterday I went home and we sat together in the sun for a couple hours. I had her in my arms at the very end.

CT Culdi's Hearts On Fire VCD1 RAE HSAs NAP OJP OFP "Flash", November 30, 1997 - October 11, 2011. The best dog there ever was and ever will be.

August and September

College has a way of eating up my time, especially when marching band is combined with Spanish homework. Getting five hours of sleep on a Tuesday night is a major accomplishment this semester.

Queezle and I have moved into our new apartment in Collegetown, along with three roommates. Queezle absolutely loves having four people on hand to feed and adore her, and has settled in well. For my part, I am enjoying the relatively level walk to classes as well as often having company on said walk (the 11 people in the upstairs portion of the house are also band people).

Tia collected some more Excellent Jumpers legs at the Cato trials mid-August, finishing up her MJP2 and getting started on the MJP3! The Bopper is like fine wine - she just keeps getting better with age. Queezle on the other hand was once again metaphorically for sale, so on the weekend we backed off and just did mini courses for each run. She's entered one day this coming weekend so we'll see what the state of our teamwork is after a couple weeks of very low-stress training (aka next to none).

Beyond that I don't think we've really done much of anything up until the Wine Country circuit the first weekend of October. Queezle doesn't have her hair back yet, so I was just showing other dogs in conformation. Belle the Vizsla went Best of Opposite on the first day for a three-point major, which puts her up to 7 points and one major! She didn't get anything the other three days, even though she showed really well in the super muddy ring on Sunday. Then I also showed Will the Sheltie puppy, who had a grand time and looked like a pro even though it was his first time showing. He didn't get any points, but it was good experience.

Queezle did get to lure course though! When she got out of the car and saw the stationary lures she knew exactly what we were doing. She ran well all three days rain or shine, and now has her Coursing Ability title!

Go dog, go!

Sheltie Trials

Just finished up four days of agility hosted by the local Sheltie club. The judges were GREAT - Scott Stock and Robert Kripaitis. Some interesting courses and lots of fun.

Tia had a wonderful weekend - two qualifying runs in Excellent B Jumpers and one in Excellent B Standard, all with first places! Her other runs only had minor errors, and she was running very well. The Bopper is quite the dog!

Queezle, on the other hand, was in the doghouse. We were having "bitssues" - she felt she should be in charge and that I was getting in her way, and I said like hell sweetheart. I pulled her off the course multiple times for obnoxiousness, because if she isn't going to work with me as a team, then she doesn't get to play. She didn't like having her runs cut short, but she also wasn't particularly willing to back down - several people commented on her attitudey walk when I was taking her back to the car. It was very frustrating for me, because at our last trial back in June I was thinking that we were really starting to run as a team. We had this problem a few years ago with the weave poles - I would say, "Weave," and Queezle would say, "Make me." This weekend she was doing the same thing at both the weave poles and some tight parts on courses. Not totally sure what brought it on, as we have been able to practice in different places pretty frequently (and last weekend we did a lot of agility during downtime). I think we'll get through this storm faster though because she has really good weaves once she shuts up and does them. It's like when a horse suddenly starts balking at a bridge they have crossed every day - she is testing me, and as long as I am consistent and don't let her get away with bad behavior she will revert to the awesome agility dog that I know and love.

Today she bounced back - we made it almost all the way through Standard before she started giving me grief, and then in Jumpers all I had to do was make her lie down when she started to bark at the weave poles and then she composed herself and we finished the run in fine style. We are entered at Cato in two weeks, so between then and now we're going to make sure we do some quick weave pole practice once or twice a day. And contacts too of course - you can never practice those too much!

I also ended up running Hokey and Dani some because my mom got mild heatstroke on Friday (she is fine now) and then she had other things going on on Saturday. Hokey and I had a nice run in Excellent Standard and the qualified in Exc Jumpers! Dani NQd in Jumpers both days but we had pretty good runs.

Some Photos from the Rodeo

I didn't get many photos, because a) it took me two days to find the camera in all the haphazardly packed bags from moving out of the apartment, and b) my battery was low and all of my replacement batteries are still in Ithaca. Oops. So here is a very limited pictorial.

Queezle in her expen, which she liked as long as I wasn't off spending time with other dogs (whenever that happened, she turned into a whiny beast).

Queezle and the coyote. She really didn't react to it much when she first saw it. Some of the dogs freaked out, and the following night one Ridgeback went postal and ripped its tail off. I told Queezle to stay away from that one.

June and Clifford doing rally. June was the rally instructor for the weekend. She is doing agility with her young boy Chance, but Clifford is a rescue who just does rally for fun now.

Clifford lounging.

And that's pretty much all I got!