Finish and start

Went out to Las Vegas with Rick and all the dogs the end of March to attend three obedience trials in a casino (hence the reason Rick went <G>).  On Friday, Proxy put in a really nice Utility run to win the class for 10 OTCh points, which finished that title and was also High in Trial.

 

Teaz earned her second CD leg with a decent score for First place.

Then on Saturday, Teaz finished her CD with another First and only 1/2 point out of HIT.

So, Proxy is more or less done with obedience and will now focus on finishing her MH, and Teaz is on her way up!

The NOI - I mean, the NOC

The National Obedience Invitational is now called the National Obedience Championship.  Even tho it's still an invitational.  Shrug.  Anyway, we drove out to Tulsa this year so Proxy could compete in her first NOI/NOC.  Since it's still winter for most of that trip, there wasn't much for flowers to take pictures of, but I was really excited to get this one, a Desert Lily, near Kingman, AZ.

Proxy did pretty well - we had one NQ on an article because I wasn't really taking any of this seriously and used a set she isn't really used to using.  Despite that, she ended up 20th overall, which is more or less our best finish - Diver was 22nd one year, but under the old format.

The view from our crate set up.

The stays.  Proxy is the third dog from the bottom on the left.

The drive out and back was long but went fine.  On the way home the girls got a chance to run amok and, um, share a toy...

Christmas with the herd

We took the traditional picture in front of the tree, and everyone stayed in place rather well, tho apparently Rick can't take a picture in focus - this was the best one.  ;-)

 

Of course, Kitty wasn't about to pose with those awful dogs...

On Christmas day, Kitty got tuna fish and the dogs all got bones.  Here Teaz and Rapid chew theirs in harmony...

While Princess Proxy must be alone!

Shaping

Because I have nothing better to do right now and a bunch of dogs to train, I decided to try shaping a retrieve with Rapid (Schipperke) and Brisa (Curly).  Rapid is just barely a year old, bright, biddable, food driven, likes to work and naturally carries toys around.  When he was very young, he would actually retrieve, but the deliver to hand part fell by the wayside fairly soon. 

Rap retrieving as a biddy pup

Brisa is five and a half, has been force fetched by me, is either not too smart and/or rather stubborn, food driven, would rather be a couch potato and has little natural carry. 

Brisa retrieving a duck last June

Rapid started a little more than a week before Brisa, but is miles ahead of her in progress.  After a little more than two weeks of almost daily work, he will pick up the dumbbell and put it in my hand.  He almost always gets right to work instead of wandering around the house checking other things out - as far as he is concerned, getting me to give him treats is Job One!  ;-)

Brisa on the other hand is coming along slowly, despite the fact she know how to retrieve - I'm not using any commands however, as I want this experiment to be as close to clicker training a retrieve as I'm willing to get.  However, even tho she has to know what to do with a dumbbell when it is presented to her, she spends a lot of time avoiding by sniffing my hands, wandering off, sniffing the treat box on the desk, etc.  She is up to more or less briefly picking the dumbbell off of the floor; I say more or less because we are still doing a lot of avoiding despite the heavy rewarding for any lifting of the dumbbell off of the floor.

I may have to do Brisa's training using her dinner as the rewards rather than doing it at night a couple of hours after dinner.  She willingly eats the treats and seems to really want to work for them, but it may be that she needs to be hungry to get to the point of knocking off the avoiding work thing.

Or not.  Brisa simply doesn't have much desire to work and will get out of it whenever she can.  Her mother was even worse, so she comes by this honestly.  I decided to experiment with shaping with her to see if that might make her more willing to work, so we'll see!  Unless she stops trying and/or progressing, I'll keep at it.

More destruction

Someday, hopefully soon, I'll be able to post pictures of a completely finished house, but until then here are photos of the work in progress.  In the living room over the fireplace the original owner had put up more of the wood cladding, and that came down today.

Before:

 and after!

Now Rick will "mud" the damage to the drywall and I'll sand it after it dries.

The original owner also put decorative beams in the dining room, which seems silly to me because they make a small room look even smaller.  So those came out today too.

Before 

and half way thru after!

Just because I like it!

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.