"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom."
- Thomas Carlyle
People ask me "Why do you do all the things you do?" My answer - "Because I CAN!" Never take for granted your life and your capabilities. I never want to look back on my life and think "I wish I had tried this, I wish I had worked harder, I wish I took a chance." I am trying things, I am working hard, and I am definitely taking chances. I fall, I get up. I become despondent, I find a crumb of hope and latch on to it. I crash and burn, I make a new plan. The most important thing is to never ever ever forget how blessed I am!
Click on any photo on this page to enlarge
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Here we go again!
I had an uneventful New Year's Eve last night, which is good I guess. I forgot to mention that when Pizza had her uterine biopsies done a couple weeks ago, they also took a lump off of her head and sent it in for testing. I had thought it was just a lump from her banging in and out of the dog door, but they looked at it and said it was a growth. Of course, yesterday evening she managed to scratch at it and it was gaping open and bleeding. I sent a photo to my surgeon at 6pm and he responded immediately (gotta love OSU!). She doesn't require stitches again, but she is back in the cone/donut and being restricted again until it heals. Of course, that means she gets to sleep in bed with me so Ii can monitor her...yay for her!
It's New Year's Day so that means it is time for goal setting. I will write these goals out and never look at them again until December 31, 2025. I am going to try to be a little more realistic in my goals. I have found that pie-in-the-sky goals do me no good as they are usually pretty unattainable. I have enough frustration in my life, no need to manufacture some for myself. So here we go:
2025 SHORT TERM GOALS
1. Earn Dolphin's Master Hunter title
2. Earn 20 QQ's in agility with Noodle (PAX title)
3. Earn 10 QQ's in agility with Dolphin
4. Earn Pizza's Master Hunter Advanced (MHA) title
5. Earn Dolphin's Master Jumpers Bronze (MJB) title
6. Earn Dolphin's Master Fast Silver (MFS) title
7. Earn Noodle's Master Bronze Agility Preferred (MXPB) title
8. Earn Noodle's Master Bronze Jumpers Preferred (MJPB) title
9. Earn Noodle's Agility Master FAST Excellent Preferred (MFP) title
10. Raise a healthy, talented litter out of Pizza, OR get a new puppy for myself
11. Successfully compete in agility with Pizza with no visiting!
2025 LONG TERM GOALS
1. Earn Noodle's 50th Master Hunter pass
2. Earn Noodle's PACH
3. Earn Noodle's RACH
4. Earn Dolphin's Master Silver Agility (MXS) title
5. Earn Dolphin's MACH
6. Earn Dolphin's Rally Novice (RN) title
7. Earn Pizza's Rally Novice (RN) title
Some of these are very doable. Some are a bit of a pipe dream, but doable with the right circumstances. I pretty much removed my field trial goals as I now realize there just aren't enough opportunities around here to compete, so it just isn't going to happen.Most of these goals are title-oriented, which I tend to gravitate to because it's pretty black and white. Either you achieved it, or you didn't. I have a lot of more intrinsic personal goals that are harder to define - develop more patience with others, work on getting myself and my dogs more fit, keeping my competitions FUN regardless of outcomes, and working on spending more one-on-one quality time with each dog. We will see how those pan out in 12 months.
We had our first real snowfall overnight. It made the property look so pretty, but damn it was cold! I took everyone out for a little run in the snow. None of us lasted very long because the wind made the 20-something degrees feel a LOT colder.
Yesterday evening I took Dolphin across the road to train a little agility by myself. We had a blast! He was so happy to be working. We worked a bunch on weave entrances, and also worked threadles, and his running A-frame. It was fun to get out of the house and do something.
I had a good talk with my repro vet about Pizza. Her uterine biopsies came back 100% normal, everything looked perfect and healthy. We are figuring out a plan because I have maybe ONE more shot at breeding when she comes in to season in late February/early March. The lump they removed off of her head was also benign - just a fatty growth and nothing to worry about. While that is a relief, trying to get that spot on her head to heal has been a complete bear. She scratched it open so back to the cone she went, poor girl.
I braved the cold and headed to Dayton to a Rally trial. Noodle was amazing today - she was very accurate and pretty focused. We scored a 98 in Master, a 100 (and 4th place) in Excellent, and a 99 in Advanced...nice scores! This makes rally triple QQQ #9. We need 20 triple Q's and 300 points, 150 coming from Master. I anticipate if we keep going at this rate, we might be able to finish her RACH in a couple years. I am hopeful!
Today was a frustrating, tough day. Noodle and I headed to a local agility trial for the day. This is a place with pretty slick turf, so it's not great for Dolphin or Pizza, so they stayed home. Noodle is lighter on her feet so this doesn't usually affect her. I should have known it would be a wild and wooly day as we have been snowed in for the past week, and the bitter cold temperatures mean that the dogs can only go out for about 5 minutes before their paws start to freeze. Of course with this lack of exercise Noodle was a little squirrelly. The first run of the morning was Jumpers, and after the 5th obstacle she left me to go bark at a dog that was sticking his nose through the fence (why do people let their dogs do this???). I will not tolerate that, so I walked her off.
Next was FAST. She only needs one more Q for mer Master FAST preferred title, but that will have to wait till next month. The send had a tunnel/dogwalk discrimination with the tunnel being on the far side. Yeah, I knew that wasn't going to happen because Noodle HATES tunnels and will usually only go in them with a lot of encouragement. I was right, that is where we failed.
We had to wait ALL day for Standard. Noodle ran amazing! It was one of her best and fastest standard runs, and I came out of the ring triumphant, excited over the large number of PACH points she had just earned. Then when they posted the results I saw it was an NQ. When I asked the judge, I found out that she ticked a bar, and it fell late - late as in 3 obstacles later! In my video, she clears the jump and it stays up. We do two more jumps and then the weaves, and the jump came down then. So weird. I never saw it come down as I was in another part of the ring by then. So freaking disappointing. I am a little frustrated. OK, a LOT frustrated as finishing her PACH is a big goal for this year and we are not starting off well, going 0 for 3. She had a 0 for 3 day at the last trial a couple weeks ago, which is so odd since she has been amazingly consistent all last year. I tell you, it was a real bummer after seeing that the Q I was so excited about was actually an NQ. Not sure why it affected me so much. Maybe because that run was SO amazing and one of the best we've had in a year? Crushing.
We are entered again on Sunday, we will see if we can get our act together and do better.
Today was definitely a better day at the agility trial. We took yesterday off (I had an online seminar I had to attend all day), so we woke up this morning fresh and ready to tackle some really hard courses. The courses were tight, twisty, with lots of weird angles and 180 degree wraps...perfect for Noodle! Dolphin and Pizza would have really struggled on these, but Noodle is very handy when it comes to tight courses.
We were only entered in jumpers and standard today. We started off the morning with a pretty nice jumpers Q. She did go visit the judge after completing the weaves, but it was in flow and I got her right back to finish clean. What the heck is up with all this visiting she started the past month? So unlike her!
We had to wait around all day to run standard. It was worth the wait, as Noodle ran a beautiful clean course for Double QQ #12!!! We are more than halfway in double QQ's, and not quite halfway in points. We are chipping away at that goal! Noodle's next agility trial isn't until February. I have a tripe with Dolphin to Georgia and a field trial with the girls in between Sure hope the weather improves so I can actually train in the field the next couple weeks...
There was a photographer at the trial today. I never turn down buying good photos of my dogs, because every one is a precious memory. I have never regretted buying photos!
Today (Wednesday) My agility bestie and I vanned up our boys after class and headed south to an agility trial in Talking Rock, Georgia. We picked a trial in Georgia a few months ago because it seemed like heading that far south in January would be much warmer. Well, it was a tad warmer, but not much!
We went down a day early so that we could spend a day hiking and exploring the area. This is what we like to do on long trips - it gives the dogs a chance to stretch their legs for a day after being cramped in crates all day during the drive, plus we get a chance to get out and enjoy nature.
We found a great hiking spot up in the hills by Carters Lake. It was a great hike upand down hill, ending at a beautiful spot overlooking the lake. We found a place to scramble down to a little beach area by the water. Too bad it was so cold - barely 40 degrees. Dolphin put his feet in the water and then decided that it was a bit too cold for a swim. Even though it was cold, the day was sunny and beautiful! I had a lot of potential hikes planned, but we ended up spending most of the day at this one. Hey, 40 degrees was much better than the 12 degree weather back home, so I'll take it!
What a weekend! It was full of ups and downs. The best part about the whole weekend was how amazing Dolphin ran! Every single run he ran with a TON of speed and enthusiasm! With this speed and enthusiasm came a lack of control and jumping, and it caused a LOT of knocked bars. In watching my videos, the cause for the bars coming down was different everyt time - some times he jumped like superman and took off way too early, coming down on the bar. Other times he was going so fast he tried to through in a short chip stride and knocked the bar. Sometimes he was running too fast he couldn't make the turn cleanly and hit the upright. Notice a pattern? They were all caused by too much speed and not enough control. To be honest, I'll take that type of knocked bar any day over a knocked bar caused by lack of effort. Dolphin has to learn to rate his new-found speed and figure out his striding to jumps, bec ause it's way different than his speed in training. It will come.
Dolphin won the three classes that he didn't knock a bar. The other classes all had a knocked bar, and he would have won all of those classes also if he had left the bars up. We had a super nice Jumpers run on Friday and an amazing standard run on Sunday...if only they happened on the same day. I wish! Here is a recap:
Friday: FAST: It was a really nice Q and 1st place. Send was a bit tricky - jump, serp to another jump, then flip to tunnel. The line was pretty far from the jump, but Dolphin had a ton of momentum and it worked perfectly. He won the 24" class! Standard: Dolphin hit the panel jump on a soft turn, knocking several bars, a wing, and the number cone. He then missed his A Frame contact, so I did a FNG (the second attempt was marginal...ugh) and we were good the rest of the run. Jumpers: What an amazing, smooth run for 1st place! (Video is below)
Saturday: Jumpers: He knocked a bar - it was a 180 turn out of the weaves to a jump and he misjudged it. He gained so much speed after that on a line of jumps that it carried him out to an off course jump. I didn't correct, we went on and finished very strong. Premiere Standard: We don't usually enter premiere, but it was sandwiched between jumpers and standard so i figured what the heck? It was a mashup of errors - he didn't read my backside command and took the front side, then knocked a bar. It was good practice, if nothing else. Standard: He knocked the second bar, possibly because I was calling his name to get him to turn? His A frame contact was marginal, I think he missed it but the judge didn't call it. The rest of the run was awesome.
Sunday: Jumpers: I wanted this Q so badly as it would have been his Bronze jumpers title (and they had amazing New Title ribbons) but it wasn't meant to be. He superman-jumped the jump after a tunnel and knocked the bar, and then his momentum carried him forward so he ended up behind me on my front cross, causing a refusal. The rest was great. Tine 2 Beat: I was a bit rattled as I had ran my friend's dog first and made a stupid mistake in forgetting the course and running the beginning of the jumpers course (they both started the same, but then diverged). Dolphin knocked the jump after the teeter - it looks like he tried to throw in a short stride and was too close to the jump. The rest was awesome. Standard: I was in a pretty low funk by this point after 5 straight NQ's and knocked bars. Dolphin ended up running a fantastic clean run in standard for 1st place and the BEST mood-lifter for the 8 1/2 hour drive home! (video below)
Dolphin's Master Standard and Master Jumpers runs from this weekend:
GCH CH Country Star's Sieben Mal - "Sieben" October 6, 2008 - January 23, 2025
Today we had to say goodbye to our eldest, the patriarch of our Weim family. Sieben had an incredible, long well-loved life, living over 16 years with us. It was a hard day. Losing two of our guys in the past 3 months has been really rough. Sieben's son Brennen is still with us, and still active at age 13 1/2. He now takes over the job of Patriarch, and entertainer of Noodle and Pizza.
I don't have a whole lot to report. The temps have been in the teens and single digits, so the dogs are a bit stir-crazy. Ok, to be honest, so am I. All three dogs had classes this week and they were absolutely fantastic! Dolphin ran like it was an away trial. It was wonderful. Last night I rented the training building and took Dolphin and Noodle. Noodle ran faster than she has ever run, I swear. I worked with Dolphin on his A-frame, and also some weave entrances. I worked both dogs on serpentines and backsides. It was a good session, ending with some retrieving. I notice Noodle doesn't do a great job in marking her retrieves (I was doing double retrieves with her) because she is so on edge waiting to be released by me that she focused more on the release than actually watching where the bumpers landed. Interesting...
For some good news, the secretary's report from the AKC board meeting last week showed that they are actually discussing the rule change in agility to allow a one time transfer of MACH double QQs and points to PACH. Hallelujah!!!! I have been e-mailing AKC every single month for over a year now about this. Noodle was sitting on 17 double QQ's (you need 20 for your MACH) when I had to make the hard decision to drop her to preferred last January. I lost everything - all of her double QQs and points and had to start all over again from zero. Since then it's been a race against time trying to see if I could possibly earn her PACH before she had to retire. She is now sitting on 12 preferred QQ's after only one year. If this rule passes, she will have eaned her PACH already!I am hopeful, but I am not slowing down on my goal as you never know what AKC will decide to do.
Hallelujah! Today I finally got back out in the field! It was still kind of cold - mid to upper 30's - but the sun was out and the snow was starting to melt and it was a perfect day to get the dogs back out in the field. They haven't been out in 6 weeks, so we have a lot of tuning up to do.
Today it was all Dolphin and Noodle. Dolphin worked first. He was wonderfully steady on his birds. Both birds were missed by the gunner, so I had to throw a dead one. I did 3 consecutive retrieves on the first bird and he did great! I did two consecutive retrieves on the second one and it was equally good. Much improved over last month, for sure. His first honor was wonderful (though he does get bored quicky waiting for the retrieve to be completed). His second one was so-so. I had my friend throw a dead bird right at us and send her dog on the retrieve. The bird didn't land close but it was enough in front of Dolphin to catch his interest and he watched that one much better.
Noodle was jumpy, as I expected. Her first bird was shot and she jumped forward about 3 feet on the shot. I picked her up and put her back, and made her wait a nice long time before sending on the retrieve. Her retrieve was direct and straight to hand. We were out of shootable birds, so I worked her on a pigeon next, and she was rock solid. I kind of expected that, as my dogs tend to be pretty steady when they don't see the bird fall. We have a bit of work to do before our next hunt test in 3+ weeks.
Today was Pizza's turn! Actually it was Dolphin's turn again, since he needs the most training. I started the afternoon with him and his usual training partner. We didn't have a gunner, so we just worked on steadiness and honoring. He was steady as a rock on all of his birds (including a rogue one that ran behind him before flying). He had some decent honors also.
I worked Pizza with my friend's puppy. She did a great job of holding steady even when the pup stole point, and jumped in and grabbed the bird from in front of her. Great training opportunity for Pizza. She was so solid on her birds. As I was getting ready to leave, another friend showed up and asked me to stick around so I got in another hour of training with Pizza. All in all she pointed probably 10 birds, solid as a rock on every one of them. Her honoring was awesome as usual, but she started trying to turn around and leave once the pointing dog went to retrieve. It's like once the bird was shot and went down, she felt she was done, or she was bored watching, not sure which.
All in all it was a great day. The snow was still present, and icy in some areas, and in other areas it was a very slick mud. It made for some interesting walking in the fields. I think Pizza could have gone another couple hours, she didn't slow down at all. As for me, I was ready for the break!