CCRCA national specialty

Our national specialty was Sept 11 - 15, in Beachwood Ohio, at a very nice hotel (that I have already forgotten the name of!).  There was even a pond inside, with goldfish and turtles.

We could get free food from the front desk; one turtle thought we weren't throwing enough to him...

We got obedience out of the way right on the first morning, and Proxy was High in Trial and High Combined, winning both Open and Utility.  Lotsa loot!

That evening we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures of the exhibits - this was one of the oversized guitars that were ringing the fountain out front.

After a couple of days of drinking, er, conformation, we went out to watch the field dogs.  The grounds are owned by the Buckeye Retriever Club and they are really nice.  If Ohio didn't have weather, I'd consider moving there.  ;-)

A bumper being used as a bumper!

I found some great flowers!

Then the long trek home - our connecting flight in Dallas was three hours late!  Proxy and Lucky Kitty are both bored.

Catching up

We've been doing more traveling to obedience trials - Spokane, WA, Reno, NV (that one with Rick!) and Grass Valley, CA.  Proxy is up to 67 OTCh points now, winning 20 in Spokane with two Utility Firsts and a High Combined ...

... and in Reno she won another 20 points by winning Utility AND finally getting her Open First as well, which also gave her High in Trial and High Combined.  Plus she finished her UDX and OM3 there...

... and, in Grass Valley she crashed and burned, only managing to Q in 3 out of 8 classes!  Maybe too much tracking.  <G>

On the way to Spokane I took some pictures of flowers -

and a picture of the moon reflected in both Klamath Lake and my rear view mirror.

On the way home from Reno, Proxy got to fetch bumpers from Lake Topaz.

fish

I should stay out of pet stores - every time I go in there, usually to buy the joint health kitty treats for Psycho Kitty, I look at the fish and many times I end up buying one.  This is the latest one, an almost halfmoon blue butterfly Betta that I just couldn't resist!

 

On the way out of town to go to the Truckee trials, I just had to get this bitty feeder Goldfish.  He made it all the way to Reno and back just fine, but when I put him in the big tank he disappeared.

 

This is the big tank, with six adult Goldfish in it - they are hard to get a photo of since they never stop moving and begging for food.  ;-)  All except the calico one were feeders.

 

I want to set up another tank for Goldfish as this one is maxed out, but I don't have any place to put it!

 

Boredom

Proxy was spayed on Tuesday, spent most of Wednesday getting over it and today, she is BORED!  We've done a very little bit of heeling and some fronts/finishes but I'm sure she'd rather be running, jumping and fetching.

 

Because it's so hot and humid, I'm not getting much done with the other dogs (or anything really).  So I've been giving them things to destroy in the back yard - I'll have to go out and scoop up all the little bits later, but at least they are enjoying themselves.  Here, Rapid and Teaz work on a Cheerios box.

 

Weird weather

The whole herd and I went to Reno for three trials.  The good news is Proxy is still working well and managed to earn 4 more OTCh points in heavy competition.  The bad news was the weird weather!  It was HOT and HUMID in Reno, and the building the trial was in only had swamp coolers, which couldn't keep up.  So right away on Thursday I bought a big fan, which was a blessing, tho I wasn't able to cram it into the car to bring home so I donated it to the club.

The drive home was...interesting.  The temperature changed a lot -

 

We hit a hail storm so bad I had to pull to the shoulder twice - 

Those blurry white lines are hail buildup on the freeway.  Sometimes it came down so hard and fast I couldn't see at all.  Fun.  I was lucky in that I'd stopped not long before this and got a nice picture of Teaz with some of the native wildflowers.

More obedience

The trip to Oregon was fun and Proxy worked hard, passing five out of six classes, but we just couldn't quite get into the points.  Twice tied for Fourth was the best we could do due to heavy competition.

The next weekend we were off to Ventura for three trials.  I wasn't really keen on two trips in a row but I hadn't paid attention to the fact that Oregon was the end of June and Ventura the beginning of July!  Proxy did good work again, passing three out of four classes and winning five more OTCh points on Sunday.

It was a fun weekend and nice to be able to go out to dinner with good friends three nights in a row.  The only downside was the fact we were parked next to this thing, which made sleeping interesting.

At least it didn't rain on us, as it did in Oregon.  Next trip is in a couple of weeks, to Reno!

catch up time

We've been pretty busy lately, doing a variety of things, such as lure coursing -

Rapid's bunny butt!

Teaz closes in on the lure.

Brisa came back for a visit and has been fitting right in -

Been doing a little field training -

Brisa swims

Teaz and Rapid jump.

and Proxy won a High in Trial and High Combined at the Bahia Sur KC trial.

 

Wednesday morning after we train with the Heartwell group we (Proxy, Teaz and I) are leaving for Redmond, OR , for three trials.  Big entries so I am hoping that Proxy can hold it together at least once out of six for some points!