(I’ve been a bad blogger lately – put my neck out and spent most of last week with a nasty headache from it, so I’m just catching up now!)

We spent the weekend of 2/23-24 at another very successful CPE trial. It almost didn’t happen – a storm came through Friday dumping 9 inches of snow on us (and some sleet and freezing rain for good measure)! Happily, it cleared out Friday night and the roads, while a mess, were driveable Saturday – though my poor car was COVERED in road salt!

Here’s what my yard looked like AFTER several days above-freezing!

No, we weren’t running in that snow! The trial was a 1 ring trial, indoors at our training building.

Long story short, Bryce went 9 for 10 and finished 2 more titles. The surprise of the weekend? So did Jayda! And she would have made it a perfect 10, but for an error in judgement on my part (more on that later). Her 2 titles were both level 2 (5 levels in CPE) but 5 of her qualifying runs were level 3 and one was at level 4! She may never set any land speed records, but she has good, solid technique, is a very honest girl, and is getting faster as she gains confidence.

CPE is an easy and fun venue for the dogs, but I personally find it exhausting as a handler. There are 7 different classes in CPE, most trials offer 4-5 runs a day. And unlike other venues, only two of the classes (Standard and Jumpers) are the customary “follow the numbers” type. The others involve anything from simple choices (Colors, Wildcard) to games where most or all of the “course” is left to the handler (Jackpot, Fullhouse, Snooker). Maybe I’ll post some sample courses if I have time to scan them this week.

I find I not only spend more time during the walk through figuring out my strategy, but then I have to REMEMBER it! Multiply this by 2 dogs at different levels and with different issues and you can see how tricky this can get. I NQ’d Jayda’s first Fullhouse run of the weekend when I forgot that with her I *need* to get maximum points in minimum time and sent her through a time-consuming 3 pt tunnel instead of over a quick and easy 5 point double jump, finishing one point short.

Raven spent Saturday with my neighbors – playing with their dogs, with them and with the snow in their yard. They had cleared an area of their yard for the dogs to play in… so where does Raven go? Dives into the 9″ deep snow and starts rolling around in it! Yep – that’s Bryce’s niece all right !

Sunday I brought her with us and was very pleased with her. It was her first time at a trial with us and she was very good – not too much fussing in her crate – and she was totally unphased by all the noise and commotion! She met a bunch of new dogs and people (and played with any of them who would have her) and got to watch the trial a little. She was FASCINATED – very intent on watching the other dogs run through the course.

She moved into her new “big girl crate” last week. I’ve noticed that Bryce and Jayda both sleep curled up in a little ball, but Raven prefers to sleep stretched out flat on her side – the smallest dog takes up the most space!

My Nikon went out to be fixed yesterday AND the same day the card reader (for my old Olympus) that I bought on eBay arrived so we have PICTURES !

The first new family portrait – Large, Medium and Small …

The little tot a few weeks ago…

There were some surprises on the card – a few photos I took just before I got the other camera. Here’s a pretty one of Sally and Bryce on my porch (circa June 2004)…

And some cat agility! ‘Bika as a cute little kitten …

And the one good photo I have of Kacey weaving! Yes, I really did teach a cat to weave !

Warning: Never teach your cats to do agility if you like to train your dogs someplace where the cats hang out, because you will have to lock the cats up EVERY TIME you work the dogs. Or face the consequences, which means having cats all over your equipment and in your tunnels. (This can get ugly because cats don’t like to “share”!)

Beautiful, unseasonably-warm weather here this week. Unfortunately, its been raining on and off since Tuesday. Yuck! If it lets up before it gets too cold again Bryce deserves to have some “Mommy ‘n’ Me” time to go for a nice walk.

I moved my contact-training board onto my (covered) front porch. Still haven’t put anything under it, but the warped board makes noise and bounces on the porch. Raven is undeterred – she even seems to be starting to connect the 2 on 2 off position with the place she gets cookies!

That pup is so darned coordinated – reminds me a little of Sally in that respect! She will be 5 mos old tomorrow – already has great body-awareness and no real sign of gawkiness in her growth. Looks like she may finish growing “all in one piece” like Bryce did.

Unfortunately, her lovely natural EARS are being a little rebellious – she’s teething and they’re thinking about coming up. Gotta glue them back down – they’re so pretty I want them to stay that way. I hate gluing ears – bleh!

Little Raven went to her first day of school yesterday!

After a slightly nauseous hour ride there, she came out of the car, tail up, ready to take on her new adventure. She was delighted to see that this adventure involved OTHER DOGS and greeted her classmates very nicely, play bowing at most of them. She should be so polite to her housemates – hah!

First, let me say that the Comfort King matting is wonderful! I’m kind of a connoisseur of indoor agility matting (OK – I’m downright picky!) but this is good stuff. Plenty of traction and very well cushioned besides.

Class focused on straight tunnels, the chute, tires, and bars on the ground. Raven is already somewhat of a “pro” at pipe tunnels, so she happily bounced through the straight tunnels. The chute (even held steady and wide open) was a little scarier at first, but after the first one or two times she was bouncing through that too. The bars on the ground were cake – she may be the smallest dog in the class, but she has great body-awareness and hopping over a little bar without stepping on it was a no-brainer for her.

I was happy to see her doing everything with speed and gusto – small as she is, I actually had to RUN to beat her to the end of those straight tunnels! !

The one thing I didn’t like was the way the instructor started to go about “desensitizing” the dogs to the teeter sound. Raven can be a little “funny” about strange sounds – not BAD by any means, but those are things that make her stop and think. I thought the instructor pushed the issue WAY too far and too fast, going quickly from just standing there moving the board (the dogs were all some distance away and we were feeding them) to letting the end hit the ground, over and over. Even though I kept Raven far away from it and she didn’t have a “meltdown”, she got a little fidgety and I could tell she wasn’t happy with the repetitive sound, food notwithstanding. Being Raven, she didn’t hesitate to approach the Freaky Thing on her own later (when it wasn’t moving) to see what it was all about, but a more timid dog???!!! Sorry, but if I’m desensitizing to something, I want to always work BELOW threshold and don’t want to see ANY reaction(s). Did NOT agree with the way that was handled – we may take a lo-o-o-ng potty break during that part of class next time …

No carsickness on the ride home – she was so tired she slept like a furry, little rock!

Meanwhile, I thought it might be a good idea to be proactive and introduce her to boards my way and at home. Here’s Raven, meeting the board… as you can see, she didn’t find her first board meeting in any way traumatic – she didn’t even notice the little noises it made when the slightly-warped board bounced on the uneven ground. But when we start tippy-board we’ll definitely be starting out with it making as little noise as possible – until she’s crazy enough about it not to care!