The last trial of the year!

We had a great weekend at our last Trial of the year. The dogs each ran in 7 events and each of them brought home 5Q's!! Kaleb had 2-2nd places, 3-1st places. Gyp brought home 5-1st places. What a great year it has been, I am so thankful my dogs ended the year on a highnote, and knock on wood, they will be as sound and healthy in 2010.

Saturday:

Masters Standard 1:

Gyp was having a smokin' run, she knocked a bar, it threw me off ... and I ended up missing a jump as I was no longer focused! duh!

Kaleb had a great run and Qd, it was tough, technical course, not a lot of Qs on this one.

Master Gamblers 1:

This was a tough end Gamble with a 21' send away over a jump behind a tunnel to the weave poles. Gyp and Kaleb were only 2 of 6 dogs to get the end gamble. Gyp had 43 opening points and K had 30.

Masters Snooker:

This was a fun course with 2 set of 6 weaves and a jump in the middle for #7, essentially a serp with weaves! I attempted 4 - 7s with Gyp, she nailed some wicked hard entries, we missed our last set of weaves in our last 7 ... so we were still able to go finish our end sequence with more wicked weaves, and we got to the start of 7. 1st and Q!

I chose a MUCH flowier sequence for K, he took an off course jump in our closing and got tweeted! But he ran great and fast so I was super happy with his effort!

Masters Jumpers 1:

A cool course with a serp and lots of tunnel discrimination, and I got to run 3 dogs!! I went to the line with a tri-coloured Border Collie ... but it wasn't Gyp ... people were confused ... so I was for that matter :) A friend asked if I would like to run his lovely girl, Blue-eye Skye!! It was super fun, I got all my crosses in, she missed my serp cue, and knocked a bar, but what a fun dog to run ... very well trained :)

Gyp and Kaleb had great runs too!! They each Qd and Gyp had the 3rd fastest time overall.

Day 2:

Masters Jumpers:

A wicked course with lots of challenges. It was a long course yardage wise. It really challenged me. I was super happy with this run, right off the bat there was a jump the dogs had to wrap after a tunnel. I stood my ground, cued my decel, and Gyp added a stride and popped over the jump nice and tight - no-super-Gyppie-launch!! I think that was what I was most proud of on that course. The other 17 obstacles were good too! Gyp had the FASTEST time of all the Masters dogs!! I so excited as there were lots of times within hers and some mega fast dogs.

Kaleb ran really well too. I pretty much ran him the same as Gyp, all the same crosses, sometimes I adjust it for each of them. He Qd and I was really happy with how he ran!

Masters Gamblers:

This was a wicked gamble. I went in confident to it ... but I got squashed like a bug!! I was in the wrong spot for K and TWEET, and I had no time to even re-direct Gyp out of the tunnel before she was over the wrong jump TWEET. Not 1 masters dogs got this gamble. We will be setting this up this week ... on a positive not both dogs had wonderful openings!

Masters Standard:

I was soooooo happy with this run, one of my best standards I have run with Gyp. Her contacts and my trust of them have improved and she stuck every contact all weekend, and most of the time I didn't even say "TARGET", which we have found if I say to early is bad and it also causes my body to slow down and her to slow down, so I say nothing and do my job, and let her do her own. She had the 2nd fastest time - 37.11, only within half a second of the fastest dog.

Kaleb also ran great, he Qd and ran really nicely with a good time, though I could tell he was getting tired after a long week of hunting and 2 days of Agility. I'm glad we only had 7 runs in this trial.

I'll have videos posted soon!!!

Also, congrats to Kim and Bosley who got his Starters Agility Title and move-ups to Advanced, and to Jo and Tag who had a wonderful weekend - awesome handling, and a move up to Masters Snooker!

Gyp, the Busy Body

so many gyppie's ... so little time.

SEE IT BIG!

We are off to our last Agility Trial of the year and I hope I can keep up with Gyp :)

Most of our group didn't get in to the Trial, and they have a huge waiting list ... but Jolayne and Tag; Kim and Maggie and Bosley; and me and Gyp and the K-man are heading up bright and early tomorrow! Should be a fun weekend.

Jane fans ... she is going to have a great weekend ... BOTH of her Grammy's will be in town .. she better not be fat when I get home ...

All about Kaleb

Pete, Kaleb and I headed out for a morning of hunting. Just me and my best boys.

Kaleb does a few things when he is in pursuit of a bird

... he stalks ...

See it BIG on Black

he points ....

he stalks. some more ...

he runs, and runs ...

Yes K, you did a good job!

We didn't get any birds today, but he flushed about 8 Sharp Tailed Grouse, but the season for those ended at the end of October, so they had to stay. He didn't seem to mind, he was just as happy at the end of the day!

I think these guys knew where the pheasants were, but they weren't talkin'

I can't believe you left me at home. You think the Timbits make up for it? If I don't get to go hunting next time, you'll end up like Ernie, remember that.

3 dogs. 3 VERY different agendas.

... all 3 dogs had a great weekend, as always, they enjoyed it for very different reasons ...

Jane and Gyp had a great day at Alta-Pete Farm on Sunday, some friends from Calgary made the trip down to have some herding lessons with their dogs too! It was great day!

Dog 1: AKA Jane

Ya, "I'm In Charge", my shirt says so.

OBJECTIVE 1:

Find sheep shit, and some possible dead stuff. Roll on it. Repeat as necessary.

SUCCESS

what you lookin at? can't you see i'm rollin' here?

OBJECTIVE 2:

Discover what it's like to floss my teeth with wool, see what all the fuss is about.

mmm woolly goodness

yoink

grrrrr yoink grrrrrrr

ack, gag, gag, this wool is making me thirsty.

DOG 2: AKA Gyp

OBJECTIVE: Herd some sheepies

SUCCESS!

Gyp had her best lesson yet! She didn't get pouty or sulky at all, she was level headed and had FUN! She even layed down fast a few times, with no pouty face. Scott showed me some ways to increase the FUN and make more of a game out of having her switch sides. It worked well and she was very keen even when I applied the pressure. We worked with me on the fence, and the sheep between me and her. She would work up and down the fence line with me switching direction for her. It was fun and fast and she loved it! We did some baby outruns which she did good on, on both sides off of me. At our last lesson, she had a hard time on her "Away to me", she would default all the time to "Come By", this time I would say she was equal on both sides. YAY for Gyppie!

This herding stuff is fun :)

DOG 3: AKA Kaleb

OBJECTIVE: Get birds.

K and Pete had a couple great days hunting, I hope I can go next time, so I can get some photos! It probably looked something like this:

SUCCESS!

1976, made in Japan.

I was inspired this week to bring out my k1000 (made in 1976, it was my mom's camera), first I had to remember how to load film, advance it, and rewind it ... I haven't had so much fun in a while ... how lame is that. I have to mention my K1000's light meter has NEVER worked, I still to this day go with my gut as far as exposures ... I went through years of school with this bad ass tank of a camera.

Not having shot with this camera in YEARS (since Jane was a pup), I realized how much I missed this camera:

• the rush of not knowing if what you took turned out (no preview screen people)

• not being able to post-process it

• shooting with only 24 frames

• and most of all, I missed film grain.

• The only other thing I wish I could have done is develop and print it myself, I miss that, I miss the harsh chemicals.

Anyway ... here are the best shots of my 24 frames ... you should be able to click on the photos to see them bigger, and see the grain. My fancy X thousand dollar DSLR camera has nothing on this old school metal monster.

Can EFFORT be measured?

Yes it can. And in Kaleb's case, effort is a measurement of the length of the tongue. And as you can see he always gives 110%.

Yep, he's been workin' hard.

Still goin' strong 3 hours later...

Even huntin' dogs need to take a break ...

Note the lack of tongue on the subject to the left. It is safe to assume the subject on the right did most of the work.

There is nothing better in the world seeing a working dog work, doing what they were bred to do. Nothing tops it. Well except for having a really good weekend at an Agility Trial :) that is a close second.

*editors note: you must think he consumes alot of water hunting? You're right, I would say 2 or 3 litres ... and someone has to carry it ... my name is Sarah, I am a pack mule ...

Porcupine 1. Jane 0 ...but there's always next time.

"If I wasn't in the comfort of this warm vehicle, you would be mine sucker. I could get you if I really wanted too. You should Just know that. I can climb trees too, you know."

"Ferdinand, you are just a bucktoothed, bad-hair-day, overgrown rodent. Your quills don't scare me."

* editors note: I for one, hope we don't run into Ferdinand any closer than this.