Evening to myself :)

Tonight was awesome.
I drove myself to the field.
Four of us got together, two being from out of town.
We played around.
It was fun!

One lady was working on her running dogwalk and it's looking super great! She's on a full height, full length, full everything, whatever. It's awesome.


I set up some David Powell stuff for Toffee.
She rocked. She did everything perfectly. With ease.
Awesome dog :)
She is now in her bubble for Nationals.
I don't need anything to happen to her this week!

Mach did try one little part in the Powell course, and got it a few times, but we haven't worked stuff like that in a while, mostly obstacle performance, so it was pretty rusty. But speaking of obstacle performance...I did a session of dogwalks with him.

It was AWESOME!!!

He leaped a few times, but then I realized something. I've been saying "break" to him, after I set him up and throw the toy, to release him to run down. Um, duhhh. So I started saying "break" when he went up, and what do you know, perfection. He ran all the way down and hit it low. So now I need to fade the "break" to just "push". For now, it will be "break, push" until he gets the jist.

But it was so awesome!
So awesome!

I was so hot. And gross. And muddy (There was an enormous puddle by the dogwalk...exactly where I needed to run, on both sides. humph but my new shoes were up for it, and  my feet didn't get wet! Thank you gortex) and there's a ice cream parlour/hut/whateveryouwanttocallit next door, and I've been craving ice cream for so long. So I went up and got some ice cream.

BEST ice cream ever. Peanut butter caramel cookie dough. *insert watering mouth here*
So delicious.
So I sat on the back of the van with Toffee and ate my ice cream.
Then I came home and rocked out to music all the way home.

Mm. That's my definition of an awesome night.
I'm going to watch a movie now.
Peace out :)

p.s It was my friends birthday on thursday.
We went out for brunch.
These are (some) of my best friends.
I'm so blessed to have them in my life.
They rock.

I will have dog pictures later.

New Agility Shoes!

Yes...I got new shoes. When the entire sole comes off your old ones, I think it's time they be thrown out. ...actually, I don't even know where they are. Perhaps they knew their fate and walked themselves to the garbage already?

I don't particularily like shoes.
Not at all, actually.
Barefeet is the way to go.

I have an oddly disfigured foot.
It's like a bunion in a way that the bone sticks way out and doesn't like to fit into any shoes without a lot of pain.
I have crooked feet.
So I don't wear shoes.
Unless it's raining, snowing, etc.
And then I have to, or I'll get hypothermia. Or I'll fall (that's from experience). Or whatever.

I wanted to get minimalist shoes. But the whole point of me getting shoes would be that they would keep my feet dry for when it rained...when it's nice and dry out, heck, the soes are coming off - no matter how new they are!
And minimalist shoes, I guess, are not waterproof.
*Sad face* They're so comfy. For a shoe, anyways.

So we looked long and hard at Cleves when finally we found some lightweight running shoe with the added gortex layer.

Thank you Reebok.

I christened them tonight when I got home. They are actually nice. Lighter than the Solomon's I had before.
I did find out, however, that I am extremely and I mean *extremely* out of shape. Uh oh, Nationals, here we go...

Micheal Bernard Fitzgerald. = Love

Just stumbled upon him.
I'm in love.
Here, listen. You will too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw4jJC6hy58

and this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlnuVE7FXFQ&feature=related

ahhh, he's perfect.

Lovely Weekend!

This weekend was perfect. Everything that I love all in one weekend!

Yesterday I went to my friends house and we went tubing down the river. It was so nice.
Brutally hot though, I think something like 40 degrees. Wowza.
It was nice on the river, though. Especially when there was a breeze.

So there's a couple stories.
We we just chillin' and then all of a sudden, something lands on me and then bounces into the water. At the first second, I though Jess had thrown something at me. But then she was like "Dude!!! That was a fish!"

A FISH. Yes, a fish jumped out of the water and landed on me, then bounced off and tumbled back into the water.

umm...GROSS.

A little later down the river, we're approaching a strong current and a somewhat downhill sort of deal. There's two dudes out in their lawnchairs  in the water. As we're picking up speed, we realize we can't get  over into the middle in enough time to avoid these guys. So we start yelling "We're coming through!!!" But the water was too loud (or their hearing is gone...)

so being the nice people that we are, we hop off our tubes and boogey just in time to not clock them in the back of the head. But by being off our tube, the current was so strong it basically destroyed us. So our tube went flying, along with our garbage (thankfully the other people with us found it and picked it up), my hat and Jess' sunglasses. Except they are gone. Sad.

But who cares about those...I almost died. The rocks were so slippery and not to mention ouchie on my feet. And the water was so shallow that when the current took me under, I'd get abused by the rocks. Hello bruises on my back. Ouch. But we're alive. Whatever.

Also, when we got home, her brother set off a firework...from  his hand. Scariest thing ever. Yes, I screamed.

Today, however was a dog day! Agility, more specifically.

I organized a funmatch in support of our club members going to nationals in a couple weeks.
It was super fun!
Mach did the big dog stuff.
He rocked it, of course.
Toffee did too, but what else is new? ;)
Here...watch the rockstar.
Do it.
I said, do it.
Watch it.
No videos of Toffee, but I'll just let you imagine the awesomeness of it.

Craving David Powell...

I've always wanted to do a little International agility trial sort of deal. Not an actual trial, but just training, like a funmatch. You know, with lots of people and everyone tries the courses out.

But last week when we were doing just the short sequences, the people I was training with were tired after the first one. *sigh*. I guess I'll have a World Championship all by myself!!

So I started looking at courses tonight and ahh, I want to go play agility so bad right now. Even though it's midnight and I am utterly exhausted, I want to go NOW!

They all just look so much FUN!

But I will have to wait for a day off. This coming saturday I'm going to convince my mom to go to the field so I can finish the rest of those sequences.

Then Sunday we have a little Funmatch. In support of the Kapers who are going to nationals this year. There's only three of us. But hey, me and mom make up 66.66666666666666666666666% of it. Mom will be glad, as she told me I needed to get money for nationals.So I organized a funmatch. So hey mom! Look at the money :) hah.

I'm thinking next weekend, as our last training session before nationals we will do some David Powell courses. I can't wait until next weekend. His courses to me are like candy to children. I'm so exciteeeeedd!

On another note, we finally got pictures from this awesome lady in Quebec who took them at nationals last year!!



hah, I love this picture. You can see my two paparazzi's on the side. What can I say? We're famous ;)



The countdown is on...

Day in the life of...

Ah, today was lovely.
Woke up early and took the dogs for a walk.
Then I did a session of contacts with Macherdude.
Then I hung out for a little, made a healthy lunch, watched some FRIENDS :)
Did another session with Doodlebop. (he's doing awesome, might I add)
Went for a run/walk for an hour.
Did some chores.
Went to the field and played with my children!!
Ate supper.
Learned a new song on my guitar!!
House of the Rising Sun.
This is my favorite version :)
I just wish they could do the whole song..

Perfect day!

I stole these from Tori.

They looked so fun! I always want to practice World team stuff, but never have the room to set up a full course. I always try to take any set up and make it 3x harder than the sequences they have made, but that doesn't always work out so well. I'm glad she shared these :)

We only got around to doing this one...I could have done more, but my drive home needed to go. We did other stuff before, though. Like gamble work. He amazed me, actually!

Toffee did this first and it was beautiful on the first try! read the serp nicely at 2 and I was able to stay way back to get a FC in after 5, basically beside the weaves to get a tight turn to 6. The serp at 7 was fine, I had to boogy to get around the weaves and into position in time, though! The RC at 8 was my favorite part. Because Toffee has rockin' weave entries, and I like showing them off. :) hehe I was able to hang back and let her finish the weaves, did a little TA between 9-10 and a FC at 11 and cue the turn to 12.

I tried it a different way the second time. Instead of the RC at 8, I serped the weaves, then RC 9, which pulled them in, so no need for a TA, and since I was down the field so much, I trusted that she would go to the tunnel so I could run down and set the line coming out of the tunnel. Perfection, of course. :)

I got Mach out and intended on breaking it down, perhaps making it a little easier for the baby dog, but he says NO WAY! I'M A SUPERSTAR!! And he did it!!

The first time through, he got the weave entry and let me do the RC (We struggle with onside weaves, and I haven't practiced weaves..in FOREVER) and I hung back like I did with Toffee and he finished them with no problem. I, however, was a little excited about the whole thing and flubbed 9-11 up. We practiced 6-12 a few more times. He's such a rockin' little boy :) I'm so pround of him :) Worlds, here we come!!!

Hopefully I will be able to do the other sequences soon.
I really should have taped training tonight. Ah well..next time!

The Weekend of a Lifetime :)

Ah, so this past weekend we had a trial in Sussex with FAST.
It was a big weekend. A very exciting weekend.

Some may have known, but I only needed one more standard Q for my Lifetime award. (You need 125 games and 100 standard Q's). I had enough games at the beginning of last year, but have been working hard on getting all of my standards. Which is sometimes is hard, seeing how Tof has other plans on getting her DW contacts...hehe

But anyhow, there was four standards being offered, so I knew I could get at least 1/4!!haha I was waiting for this trial because Lynda Yielding was judging, and it just so happened that she was Toffee's first trial judge where we earned our 1st Q (and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th hehe). I thought it would be so cool to get it under her. Four years later. So cool!

Saturday decided to rain an ocean on us, all day. We were a little wet....

 

Tie Dye Long Johns anyone?





We had some visitors....

Standard was first, and Tof's "biggest fan" drove an hour to come watch us. How sweet :) Thankfully it was a nice course and I could feel that we were going to get it on this one.

There was only two little bobbles, her only getting the DW contact by maybe a toenail (eek!) and almost going over the wrong jump..thank goodness she had a little shake to get the water off so I could get her back! Phew!

It was so cool, running out. My mom had organized (friday afternoon, mind you) to get a bar for everyone to sign. I have ALWAYS wanted a bar! We're not as cool as the AKC people, apparently. And on top of that, I got to do a victory lap! I have ALWAYS wanted to do a victory lap!!!!!!!!!! SO COOL! Watch it here :)

When they awarded all the stuff, I got a hoodie with Erin and Toffee 2011 on the sleeve and Lifetime Award of Excellence on the back. It's so nice!! Also, they got a bottle of champagne (which I could not open). I tried and tried and tried and it just wasn't coming off...hahah

They also had a cake for me, which was really nice. My personalized ribbon is coming soon. I'm so excited :)

Toffee is just so good, that for the rest of the weekend, we went clean 6/7. (a missed DW contact...go figure.) She's just the best. Watch the runs here and here.

My mom has always wanted to run Newman and Bailey together in a team run, but when they were younger they wouldn't run for me, and would just want to play...some things never change. But this was probably the last chance they would get. It was fun :)

To make the weekend even more special, a team from NS was also going for their Lifetime. He needed 3 standard. He went clean for both on saturday, so he only needed to get one of the two on sunday. Rocky knocked a bar in the first run, so we were all rooting for him (even more so!) in the second run. But no worries, he got it! What a good old boxer! The first in Canada!! The FAST crew had all the same things (sweater, cake and champagne) for him as well. But he had no problem getting the cork off....

Two in one weekend!!

All 6 maritime Lifetimers were there at the trial!!

And then to top all of that off, Mach was entered in the starters jumpers. I was feeling good about the course (it was a loop..) and feeling good about him working with me. Last weekend was exactly what I needed for our confidence. Last weekend I was only hoping for him to stay on course with me, but this run I was in the zone. And with BIG success. First Q!!! I am so proud of my baby boy!!

 



Mach's Debut :)

yay Mach!
Such a cool day. So special.

Here's the story. It's pretty extensive, so I will try to keep it short..eek.

(Completely failed on keeping it short, so here's the full story, beware, it's basically a novel, but it has a happy ending :))

So Mach is awesome, right? Everyone knows. Because, I mean, it's Mach. His training has been going great. I'm really pleased about how he works for me. Still working through little things, like keeping him (okay, me) upbeat through the troubling times, but mostly his confidence. He came to us a very very very timid little boy and that held us back a little bit, but no worries, he's pretty good nowadays :)

And since his training has been going along so great, I thought I would try him in a jumpers at a trial sometime this summer. Just to see where he's at in new environments, etc. I thought it would be really cool to trial him first under the same judge that Toffee and I had our first trial. Good karma, right? And so, I entered him.

A last minute one-day/Canada day trial came up, and I thought that would be awesome to start Mach off. There would be only about 20-30 dogs, therefore nice and quiet and (almost) stress free. But not under that judge..oh well.

We were at a two day seminar the weekend before. The first day he was fine. He did all the things I asked him to, and surprised me, even, on some stuff that I didn't think he would do. Yay, proud Mama :) The second day, however, he decided to ..uh, how do I put this..uhh...Say, "Hey! F*&k off! I'm going swimming! And running away forever and ever!!" And did that..like 4 times. So needless to say, I wasn't impressed. A little scared for his whereabouts. And, well. Sad.

But when he worked for me, he was quite impressive, I must say.

I then decided against the one day trial, and was going to email the trial secretary of the next trial to scratch him off the list for jumpers. We didn't need confidence building stuff, we needed Recall Rehab. Badly.

And so that's what we did all week. Recall games.

My mom kept at me, because I was without a doubt, no way in poohland, going to enter him in that trial. She thought it would be a good idea. I didn't think so. Especially since the trial was being held at the same spot as the seminar that he decided to run away from me.

Finally, I caved and entered just two runs, Steeplechase 2 and jumpers. I tried to be optimistic, but inside, I was a nasty little pessimistic parasite. Yuck.

When we arrived, we almost missed the measuring. Just under the 21" mark.  Phew :)

We hung out for the first run, watched some of the newbie newbies run their first run ever. Mach got excited over a few, too.

Then, I had a ..umm..meltdown. I think that's the correct word. BUT, in my defense, if that lady didn't talk to me in the first place, I wouldn't have cried like a baby!! However, her words were very kind and sincere and very much appreciated, but don't ever do that again. :) :) hehe. She was very nice and consoled me when I was overreacting about running Mach (for the above reasons^^^) and ..well, I hate it when other people are right. Gah. So Vic, if you're reading this, thank you very very much. :) You're truly awesome :)

We prepared for our first official run ever, and I was feeling much better about it. It was a nice course, and I knew Mach could do it, he'd done much harder things before (and aced them, might I add;)). We were super awkward at the startline. I wasn't sure what he was going to do, so I put him in a sit, which I never do. I was going to do a lead out pivot at the aframe, but he was unsure about the whole thing, because I was. It looked like he was about to break, so I released him before he could. However, I was like...a kilometre away from where I wanted to be and almost broke his neck doing my front cross. haha

He missed his second aframe contact, but in his defense, he hadn't been on one before that for like..a month. So, I guess that's fair.

He was running great, so I decided to finish the course (whereas, if he wasn't, I was going to loop back around and leave on a *hopefully positive note). He lost his focus for a split second at the back as he was approaching a jump and went around it. I didn't want to stop him and bring him back, I wanted to keep him going smoothly, so what if he screwed up. We finished the run, fast (32 secs :)) and 25 faults. I was *SO* happy. So so so happy.

Right after the steeplechase was over, starters jumpers was next and this time I was feeling perfect fine going up and running. My dad and his buddy showed up, though. I got a little nervous about that. My dad rarely comes to trials, and since this was probably the first time he'd ever see Mach even doing agility (unless he snuck him a few James Bond moves and watched me in the yard without me knowing hahah), I wanted him to be impressed. There I said it.

We went up and started running, though bad mama over here forgot to call his name when he came out of the tunnel and he came shooting out straight (which is what I trained him to do!! Good boy :)), so he overshot the turn and went around the jump. No big deal. We kept going, and then in the homestretch he read the rear cross very nicely but went a little too wide and proceeded to go around the last three jumps. haha, oh well.

We ended that run with 19 secs and 80 faults. hahaha, that sounds so bad, but it was SO good.

And also, he had only seen a double twice and a spread once in his entire life. So, I applaud Mach on his awesomeness.

In the end of the day, I don't care how many jumps he went around, I'm just happy that he stayed with me and he seemingly was enjoying himself. He wasn't as fast as he could have been, but that doesn't matter. He's a baby dog, living and learning.

I just think back to when Toffee first started running. She wasn't the fastest out there, but she was consistent. As we grew older, grew more confident, her speed increased, my speed increased and a lot of other things fell into place, no she's not the fastest dog, but she still kicks some serious butt :). So Mach may never be the fastest dog out there, but that's alright. If he's consistent enough, we can get to where we need to go. But for right now, all I wanted was for him to go out there and run WITH me, and be happy about it.

Mission accomplished.

Things will start piecing together soon enough. Maybe it wont be as quick as it did with Toffee and I, maybe it will. Who knows. Only time will tell.

Watch it here :)

On another note, I drove all the way home from Salisbury. It wasn't bad at all! Kinda cool, actually.

On another completely different note, Canada Day was super fun, I went out with my good friends to watch the fireworks. They're friggin sweet.

Life is good :)