MERRY CHRISTMAS 

AND

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

NAHRA fun

Last weekend we went out to Arizona for a NAHRA test.  Sketcher had a great time and easily finished his Started title.

Back at Prado

Sketch hasn't been to Prado since January or February due to his injury, tho he has been able to do some field work when we've been on the road.  Since he is entered in a NAHRA trial next month I figured we had better do some training, so off to Prado we went.   He enjoyed it.

 

A day in Arizona

We headed out to Waddell, AZ ( a little west of Phoenix) for two obedience trials in one day.  It was HOT ...

... which is apparently what is needed to get Sketch to settle down and focus on the job.  The first trial he won Novice B and then was High in Trial and High Other Breed.

Then in the afternoon trial, he repeated all those wins and had a better score.  I was doing my best to not melt into a puddle.

He's in there someplace, behind the ribbons and fans!

On to Cashmere

After we got back to Iris's house from Tennessee, we headed up to Cashmere, WA to see if Teaz could finish her OTCh.  The answer to that was no, but Sketcher had some success.  He earned his CGCA and was Third in the Adult group at the B match - out of three.  ;-)

He also got a chance to swim in the Wenatchee River, which ate two of his bumpers!

And he posed with the fall colors.

Nashville

We are in Nashville at the CCRCA national specialty.  Iris and I drove cross country in her Sprinter with seven dogs, including three boys and a bitch in season.  Fun ....

I couldn't resist bringing Sketch's center of the universe tag!

We went to Sheri's on Sunday to train for the WC/X/Q tests on Monday.

Even tho Teaz did well in Sunday, on Monday she didn't even get one bird, sigh, so after it was all over I let Sketch enjoy the water.

Swimming!

We drove up to Reno to see if Teaz's obedience attitude has improved (it has) and to show Suede in the breed ring to make a major for Iris's Bella (except, she didn't win either day).  On the way, we stopped at Topaz Lake as usual and the dogs had a great time.  Above is Suede and below is Sketch.

We spent Saturday night at Auntie Iris's so of course there was fun in the pool!

 
Sketch doing a cheesecake pose poolside.

Then it's time for fun!

 

UKC

We spent the weekend at UKC obedience trials, for Sketch's obedience debut.  Each run he had one brain fart, including going down on the sit at Saturday's second trial but then it was 102° so he had an excuse.  In the end, he had three decent scores between 193 and 196 and earned his U-CD.  We also did the SPOT test, which is their version of the CGC, and passed with flying colors.

YUM!

training, training, training!

A couple of screen grabs from the video I made at the Long Beach group last Friday -

Stuck

We are stuck in Great Falls until Tuesday or Wednesday, I won't say why because it's just too embarrassing.  So here are pictures of Sketch having fun!

 

Isn't he just the cutest thing?

Snow in June

Indoors!  Rick found some more toys out in the garage so I gave a couple to Sketcher.  In no time, there were toy guts in his pen - here he is holding the victim.

 

Trying again

Got Sketch a new treat-in-toy, and left it in the packaging so maybe it would last awhile. Twenty minutes later, out of the package and the treat is gone. Sigh.

Making confinement bearable

French fries from Jack in the Box.

Good news, bad news

Good news, bad news at the vet today. Good news is that Sketch's tendon is quite a bit improved, bad news is that he needs to be confined for another two weeks (at least - I didn't tell Sketch that part). So when Rick got home, we set up an x-pen so he could be with the rest of the family and have a bit more room.

Since this is our whelping set up, I wonder if he is having flashbacks from his puppyhood?

No good deed goes unpunished

Guess who chewed through his leash while hanging out in the yard yesterday ...

 

Craziness in a box

So, we did go to the vet and Sketcher has injured the big tendon that goes over his knee cap.  For awhile, there was the possibility of surgery, but a second visit to the vet shows that the swelling is going down.  Now it's two more weeks of crate rest and then we go back and see if maybe he can start (HAHAHA) controlled walks.

Meanwhile, boredom.

Today, I let him lay out on the lawn and watch the world go by while I gardened.

 

Broken again - sigh

We made a two week trip starting in Lewiston, ID and then on to Pendleton, OR the next weekend.  On the way up, Sketch managed to hurt himself while the dogs were swimming in the Salmon River.  It appears that he banged his left stifle on something, and he was totally lame-not-gonna-put-this-foot-on-the-ground at first, then worked his way to using it but still a little lame.  It's about two and half week later and he is still slightly lame, so he'll go to the vet on Monday if he is still lame then.

So, he ended up spending a lot of time in his crate.  Which he didn't have a problem with as long as it still hurt, but that only lasted a couple of days.  We did some sight seeing ...

This is the altar at the Stonehenge replic in Mayhill, WA.

He did a little controlled swimming in a cove off of the Columbia River.

I let him run loose at Walker Lake on the way home, which probably wasn't a good idea but he was SOOOOOO BORED!!!  ;-)

A trip to Bozeman

Sketcher went to Bozeman, Montana so Teaz could show in four trials and the both of them could show in the runthru on Saturday afternoon.  Teaz earned six more OTCh points and won two HITs and they both did well at the runthru.  They also got to swim ...

 

... and play in the snow!

 

 

a show dog, at least at a match

Sketch went to a match yesterday and did quite well in a Novice runthru, tho we didn't get to do the stays because they conflicted with Teaz in Utility.  We also did breed for practice, and he won Second in the Sporting group, out of five whole dogs.

He doesn't look particularly impressed ...  ;-)

more field fun

Sketcher ran in an HRC Started test today and earned his second leg.  Sid came along to watch her first hunt test and got some pictures.

Waiting in the holding blind, semi patiently ...

Off to the first water mark.