Home from the trial!

We made it before the bad weather came in, phew!!!

Well, no MAD dog title for Roscoe this weekend. He was awesome, but we didn't get the gamble. It was TOTALLY do-able and completely my fault. I only wish we had not been 8th dog in because I sure saw how some of the more experienced handlers were handling it and I could have done it that way myself. But, the show ran little to big, so Roscoe was one of the first to do it. Still, we did great in Snooker for our third Super Q and a win!!! That's all we need for his ADCH (Agility Dog Championship), other than of course all the other q's he needs.

Here is his winning Snooker run for that Super Q!

Feel The Rush Agility trial this weekend

My friend talked me into the four hour (ugh!) drive to CT for this trial. It should be good, the last one we did ran really well and was great fun! I have six runs on Saturday and my goal is to get Roscoe's Master Gamble to get his MAD title!! That elusive Gamble leg is all that's holding us up! Something about "Roscoe MAD" dog cracks me up! Colby still in Advanced runs two runs on Sunday and we leave early to make it home at a reasonable hour. Masters dogs run Saturday, Advanced runs Sunday. Spur will tag along and get some show scene experience.

We are practicing!!

We have our first Rally Obedience trial coming up next Friday. I am a little nervous because we never practice in a room with carpeting. I know Roscoe and I know that might distract him and make him want to sniff the floor for any tidbits he might find. His stomach rules, you know. I tried to find some photos of him doing his adorable heeling, but all I have are the ones from the Carolyn Scott Freestyle seminar. They are cute and show what good attention he has and how nicely he heels! He loves obedience work!! My biggest fear is stepping on him, he heels so closely to me. I have stepped on him plenty, but good little man keeps trying and stays nice and close! I prefer him to heel looking more straight or at my feet, but as many dogs do he cranks his head up to look at me. He is a flashy little heeler with his high stepping Hackney Pony action from his front legs! Very cute!

He makes me proud!!

Roscoe KICKS ASS in obedience!! Tibby Chase LOVED him and complimented our work. It felt really good!! He would do an exercise and she would say....."Just like that everyone!!!" Good little man!!!! He just looks so adorable heeling and doing his routine. And he can go on and on all day without tiring. I did bring Colby and Spur and worked them some, too. My friend Carolyn brought her mini-aussie, who petered out in the afternoon. She is one of the puppymill bust adult dogs that Spur came from and she just gets over-whelmed and shuts down. I offered Roscoe to Carolyn if she wanted to work him later in the day because I was working Colby at that point. She took me up on it and he worked for her like a champ!! Carolyn knows him well and knows not to try to pat him, just put him through the routine and give him treats. He worked SO well for her. Tibby even said........"Oh, you get the good dog!". I almost burst out laughing. "The GOOD dog"???? Roscoe???? But, really he was very good, never snapped at any other dog and there were some BIG dogs there. A huge Newfoundland, two Bernese Mt. Dogs, three goldens, one who was very grumpy and snarly. Roscoe never made a peep, so I don't think anyone knew he was aggressive.

My only cripe was one lady and her Bernese Mt. Dog came up near us. She wasn't paying attention and her dog shove it's nose in Roscoe's butt!! WHAT????? Luckily, I had Roscoe in my lap facing the other direction, keeping him occupied since it was close quarters and I immediately gave him a bunch of cookies. I tried not to snap at the lady, but I did blurt out......."He's NOT friendly!!"....... and I know I had a scowl on my face. I can't help it!!! Keep your snotty nosed big goofy dog out of my dog's space!! Roscoe doesn't need an anema from any dog, let alone a big, goofy, hairy one! He was a good boy and forgot about his Bernese colonoscopy and munched on his treats. He actually might not mind such an exam if it means endless cookies!?

Look at those nicely done nails!!! You can tell by his expression he isn't too impressed. He hates to have his feet touched and......O.......MY......GOODNESS...........my hand is touching his paw!!! Good little buggar only barely complained, though, when I did them. He sat patiently eyeing the yummy turkey ham I had ready to reward him with. They then all got baths and sat in the warm sun to dry. My house is so passive solar oriented it was about 80 degrees in the living room in the afternoon. We had a GREAT woods hike and Roscoe was only barely cold. Stella's Mom got some videos, hopefully she will share and I can post them here.

We are all looking forward to our seminar with Tibby Chase tomorrow!! Off to go cut up more training treats!!!

Plans for this weekend

It looks like the weather should be fairly nice, so after a nice long woods hike I will bathe all the dogs. They haven't had baths in months and after the Amherst trial and ALL THAT MUD, they all could use a bath. Plus, all the winter crud that builds up on their skin must need to be scrubbed. They all enjoy a good hot brick nap in front of the woodstove and there are always ashes there no matter how much I vacuum. So, with good strong sun there should be plenty of sun spots for them to lie on towels and dry in the warm sun tomorrow. Plus, it would be nice to have clean dogs for the Tibby Chase seminar on Sunday. I hear Tibby is excellent and this should be really fun. I found out another class mate is going with her golden, so that's nice. I will know someone there. The dogs are all loving rally class, so it will be good to work on precision and better understanding of the signs/moves.

And, with baths comes nail trims. Colby gets done every other week, but Roscoe I do monthly maybe. Spur gets done when ever, his nails don't grow that fast, but I like his paw fur nice and trim so I do nails often to make it easier to trim his paws neat. So, Spur will get nails and a paw trim, too!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

OK, so I tried to get Roscoe to hold this lips, but he would have NONE of it!! These silly lips "talk" if squeezed too hard and he kept activating them and then he would shake and "kill" the voice!!! LOL!! Colby didn't hold that tight, so it didn't set off the voice. That would be Colby holding the big fat red lips!!! She sends everyone a kiss for Valentine's Day!! Which makes more sense anyway because Roscoe wouldn't be sending ANYONE kisses, ever!! Brat!