Pretty, pretty!!!

The Liatris (sp?) has really spread!!!

Nothing says summer like sunflowers!!!

My little vegetable garden. Roscoe is waiting for me to pick him some green beans!

I bought this verbena plant as a very sad look sale special that was almost dead. Wow!! Look at it NOW!!!! It is SO happy!!

Love my flowers this time of year! I spent my day just being among them yesterday!!! :D

Meet Jazz!

She says he isn't fat. Um.....really??? I think he's pretty FAT! She wants to put even more weight on him. I can't understand that, unless he loses so much in the winter months. That would happen with Gabe. He sure looks fat to me right now.
He reminds me so much of Gabe. Just a nice ole fella!!! Mellow, easy going, no fuss, a gentleman!

The girls are IN LOVE! Jewel first, she went instantly into heat. He's gelded, but whatever, he's a HE! LOL!! Precious didn't like him at first because Jewel liked him so much, but now I see/hear her flirting with him. Goodness, mare flirting can sound so crazy!!!! We are very happy to have him here!!! Hopefully, he will live out his days here.

Spur de Blur and Roscoe is just old!

I calculated Spur's super fast Jumper's time from last Saturday and he was 5 yards/second. That's pretty fast! I mean, we are talking Spur here. Little wring his paws puppymill bust dog who I had to beg to do agility!!

He really was Spur de Blur!!!! :D

Roscoe's blood work came back all good. He's just old. We will continue training, but his competition career may be over. He's just not that into it and it costs too much money. He will still do classes and an occasional seminar run here and there as long as he is happy and into it!

All clear!

Roscoe's blood panel came back perfect. So, his aging is just that......aging. Nothing more to worry about, which is nice to know. :D He is an old man and I have to accept that. He sure wasn't pleased with his vet visit. Vet tried to clean one waxy ear. I told her I never clean his ears. They never look dirty. She did just that one and.......OH MY.......the drama!! She then said she sees why I don't clean his ears. LOL!!! Again, she had more new girls there. It makes me NUTS. She so badly needs an office manager. All the other vets have left, for what ever reason, I don't know. It's kind of unnerving. But, she gives me a nice discount, just cuz. She and I go way back and she does treat me well. I totally trust HER, I just hate the turn over of office help there. Oi!!!

Made a movie of Spur's contacts at the trial last weekend. He sure isn't as fast as in training, but I do like how he is adjusting. And I LOVE how he turns so tight into the tunnel off the dog walk. We have not trained that, so I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did!!! Good Little Monkey Pants!!! Love the two strided down. I also notice he has learned he doesn't need to jump the apex's, he can run along them and that makes for easier stride adjustments, I think. He is SO figuring it out on his own!!!

Another small trial!

NO videos, damn it! He had one of his best Jumpers runs EVAH!! A 23+ second run, beating all the dog's times! Amazing!!!! He won his PGP and got his fifth pairs leg with a good friend. It was a very fun trial. So small we did SIX runs by 3:00!! My kind of trial!!!! Spur loved it!!

Roscoe may have run his last run. I have scratched him from all other trials. He just isn't running that well and I am starting to suspect he may be older than 12. Goodness, I can't believe I may be running a dog nearly 14? But, it sure is possible. He hasn't been that into it at trials. Still crazy, nutty, super high and super fun in class and seminars, but losing some steam. Tomorrow morning we go in for a full blood panel. Haven't done that in two years and I feel bad about that, but he is always so healthy. Colby is the one that always needs some medical care.

I just feel he isn't into it at trials at all any more. He used to be hot or cold, but now it's just cold, it seems. So, maybe that was his last trial run. We will see. Maybe some pairs runs where he can run second. He always likes those where he has to wait while the first dog runs. Go figure, but waiting at the start always makes him a little nutty.

So glad the heat is gone. That really is just plain miserable for me. The flies LOVE the heat and the poor horses are miserable. Fly spray works for about five minutes. Then it dries and the flies bite again. Tonight, nice and cool.

Had a lady over today who wants to bring her old gelding here. YAY!! We LOVE the old geldings!! I hope it works out.

Videos are loading!

This first one is PIII Standard. He had a tunnel sucking issue. Took the red tunnel TWICE after the table when he was supposed to do the dog walk. Nice dog walk Spurminator!!! Two strided down! WOW!! His norm is a three strided down, so it's cool he is adjusting and getting it in different strides.



I know, I know, hard to see the tiny black dot. I really must get people to zoom in. He sure looks happy, though, doesn't he? He had a GREAT time at that trial. And never tired. He would have happily done the last run on Sunday, but I was tired. He has amazing stamina!!!!

Performance Grand Prix -

We had a few bobbles, but he was having a blast!!

Performance Speed Jumping first round -

We placed second to Blink, the super fast sheltie run by John Nyes (think World Team sheltie Rush! John runs Rush).

Performance Speed Jumping finals -

I love how our fans cheer us on! Very exciting and fun!! Spur LOVED it!!! Again, he was second to Blink, BUT only by 2.5 seconds. He has been consistently 4-5 seconds slower than Blink, but not this run!!! :D Good Little Monkey Pants!

Laura! Blogger won't let me post a reply to your comment for some stupid reason. Here is my reply - Laura, I think because of the stationary start he does a three strided up. He normally does 2-3-3. So, he his last third stride on the top ramp was nearly on top of the second apex, he was farther down starting his first stride down and he second got him deep in. :D

still no computer!!

I am always amzed at how much I miss it. Actually, right now it's all about my obsession with running dog walks!! I want to make a movie of Spur's DW's from the trial. I watched them in the TV and he has some unusual striding. I am simply amazed at how he is adjusting and still hitting the contact so nicely!! And he is ever so slowly getting faster. Does that make sense? "Slowly getting faster"? LOL!!

Have I mentioned I am obsessed???? I think It must be a high of some sort. Like a drug I am addicted to it. I don't feel bad about that. I could be addicted to drugs or alcohol or jewelry or shoes, maybe chocolate, but no I am addicted to RDW training.

There were two dogs at the trial with SICK fast RDW's, but they were not consistent. I wanted to ask how they trained them, but never did. It will be curious if Spur stays as consistent as he gains confidence and speed. Silvia says it will only get better. I am seeing that lately, but it is hard to believe. His usual striding has been 2-3-3 and a couple ovet the weekend were 2-3-2, which is amazing!!!

I WANT MY COMPUTER BACK!!!!

I'm BACK!!

We had a GREAT three day USDAA trial at BARK in RI!!! spur was faster than ever and had the nicest running contacts!! Not the best Q rate because of my poor handling as I am getting used to this new speed!!!

It was awesome hearing all the nice compliments!! I haven't had time to load the videos, but hopefully will get that done tomorrow.

He placed second in PSJ only to Blink, the super fast sheltie run by the guy who runs a world team dog, so that felt good. Spur has consistently been 4-5 seconds slower than Blink, but yesterday's run was only 2.5 seconds slower!!!

More tomorrow as I have no computer and am trying to do this on my new IPad and it is very hard to learn!!

Where am I?

I am on vacation!!! Have been since my last post!! YAY!! Two FULL weeks off!! What am I doing? Well, a ton of stuff, packed full two weeks. Last week I visited with my highschool best friend!! She lives in TX, so that was wicked fun! Took her out for a boat ride with her new guy and then out for a nice dinner in town. Awesome! Then a visit home to see my mom. Wonderful visit and watched the Castine fireworks, which were awesome. Lots of crazy shapes! Hearts, figure 8's, smiley faces, very unique fireworks!!! Ate fried squid at the local lunch spot. Yum!!!

Last week I took photos of the "Sunflower project". They have planted huge fields of sunflowers for sunflower oil which will be used by restaurants, then recycled into biofuel. How cool is that?? AND, just imagine how pretty this is going to be when they bloom.......


Enjoy this week. If you like heat today is for you. If you don't, well......you are complaining like me. >:/ NOT my favorite weather. I am sitting inside with a fan on and posting on my blog. LOL!!! But, I will settle down to another book. Just finished "Tails of an African Vet" that my dad gave me for my birthday. Fun little book.

So, I may not post again for a while. I am off on Thursday for three days of BARK trial. YAY!!! Climate controlled building with awesome field turf and the dogs love it. Great hotel, fun friends, should be an awesome time. Spur loves it there. I leave you with a cool photo. Did you know Rosa Regosa petals are heart shaped? -

Second day AKC trial report

Love, love, LOVE this trial! They run all excellent runs first, so we were done by noon!!!! That is so awesome for me, as a morning person I get my agility trial done, then head home for a nice long walk and get stuff done around the house, too!!

Roscoe was again just OK. He at least got all of FIVE MACH points in JWW today. Missed his weave entry in standard, strange thing. Both dogs did. I think the weaves were hard to see with the pattern of the wall perhaps? You will see in Spur's video here that it seems like he simply didn't see them. He had already NQ's after the teeter by taking the chute instead of going to the table, so when he did do the weaves I tried a fancy blind cross after. We practice that, but I am never brave enough to do it at a trial. Worked great!

Spur had another awesome day, looking HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY and showing off for all his fans and he has a LOT of fans!!!! He had a blast!!!

AKC trial report!

Roscoe was still kind of down, even for indoors. So much so that he barely made time and got all of ONE MACH point. :O But, two hours after that he ROCKED his standard, but called for a refusal at the tunnel because he went past it some before going in. DARN! Go figure, I have no idea his mind set and why so down in JWW and so up in standard??

Spur missed his weave entry in JWW, not really sure why. Hard entry and I probably applied too much pressure because he went past them and entered wrong, but otherwise ran great. Then he FREAKIN’ ROCKED his standard for a fourth place out of 28 12” dogs!! He was beat only by some WICKED fast dogs. His time was 44.12, which is a really nice time! I TOTALLY got in his way on my blind after the a-frame. Doi! He was going faster than I expected. His teeter was iffy, I really need to make sure he rides it all the way down. That would have been a fair fly off call, had she called it.

He was the ONLY mixed breed there today! :D Very proud of my little mutt!!