I'm not keeping it.

But it sure is cute.

Meet Malinois puppy.  He is just a foster. And he doesn't have a name.

Check out his story before he came to me:

http://www.wootube.net/blog/

In case I didn't do that link correctly, look under the blog post titled "Happy Birthday Piper"


I think he looks a bit funny, but since Avi and Reckon adore him, he's getting cuter by the day.  And I've only had him 2 nights.

We don't think he was socialized much AT ALL by the breeder, so the little tank has a lot of stuff to catch up on.  But he is doing really well.  I think he'll be just fine with the right guidance.


He does seem to want to nurse off Avi and Reckon.  Poor R, he doesn't exactly know what to make of this.  Avi seems to quite like it.

I've been taking pictures like crazy, but the three of them don't stop moving. or if he does, it's to hump my leg or foot.

More to come!  And hopefully a name too!

Too much has happened.

So instead of trying to keep up with it all, I ignored it.


Nobody has the time to read entire blog posts, so here's a recap of what's happened in the last 2 months:

*Car breaking down
*Phone and internet crashed on the same day
*Have to find new place to live


*Avion is still the most high maintenance, beautiful, most energetic, smart dog I've ever had (more on that in another, really depressing post)

*My mom got a foster Collie, Fiona
*Reckon passed his CSAU (temperament test)
*I inherited a poodle.  Cody Poodle

*Beezer and Reckon rocked it with the Superdogs this year!!

That's all I can think of for now.  I know it doesn't seem like much, but add work, pet sitting and the day to day chaos that is my life,  I felt like shit.

Everything will worked out eventually.  I got a new phone, internet is back up and I will be getting a new car by the end of the year at the latest.

Oooo and I found a place to live!  It's near Cleveland Dam, and about .36 seconds from my favourite Chinese Restaurant.  Dangerous.

I'm excited to a have a space that's a bit bigger and has a tub!!


I have caught the French Ring training bug again, and would like to train more often.  I'm hoping by the next trial Reck and I can get our Brevet.

Beezer is doing amazing in agility.  And both boys are still enjoying Nose Work. Reckon is such a natural. Amigo is perfect as usual.  Still hiking every morning :)

*Sigh*  That was exhausting.

So here's a family portrait to wrap it all up.  Minus the poodle.  We gotta work on his "stay"

Boys are dumb

Well, not all boys.  Girls can be dumb too.  But not all girls.

I'm not too sure what I'm trying to say.


So here's a picture:

That's Reckon's armpit. After he went after Beezer.


Beezer won.


Sigh.  I love my boys, but they certainly aren't perfect.  Reck can be an ass, and Beez is still nervous around him sometimes.

We were at Grandma's house and I came out of the laundry room door with a few tennis balls (God forbid there isn't enough to go around). All the dogs were waiting for me but Reck decided B was showing too much interest, or something.  Goodness knows what excuse he used to pounce on Beezer.

Well Beezer wasn't taking any of it and turned the tables.  Fast.  After a lot of pulling, yelling, punching and wondering why the f**k I have dogs, I got Beezer off of R.

And then there was blood.  A LOT of blood.  He wasn't weight bearing on either of his left legs.  A quick trip to the vets and a blood soaked towel later, it was confirmed that Reck had some nice deep punctures in his armpit.  Still no physical evidence as to why he wasn't putting weight on his back leg.

So we drugged him so we could shave the area.  He was VERY good, but it was so swollen and sore he didn't want the clippers near it.  I thought it may need stitches, but they vet was too busy, so we went home with pain meds and antibiotics.  It was very difficult to get him to walk, get up, lay down or pee.  He was so sore he didn't know what to do with himself.  Poor toughie.

The next morning I could see right away why R wasn't weight bearing.

When your leg looks like this, I doubt you want to do much with it.

I was happy to learn that Beezer didn't have a mark on him.  Reckon didn't even get the chance.  I'm pissed at both of them.  Reckon for starting it, Beezer for taking it too far.

Sigh.


Dr's orders were to crate Reck for at least a week.  Hahaha funny.

After about 3-4 days his leg went back to normal and he was driving me insane.  So I slowly increased his exercise.  He is back to normal exercise and seems none the worse for wear.

Beez is still a little nervous around Reck, but he doesn't seem to notice.

Aunty Sarah Dykes gave us some stuff to work on to create a healthier happier medium between the two boys.  Yay!



On the other hand, the girls are doing well.  Avion is at 40 pounds now! She is still full of more energy than I can fathom.  She still loves to play with balls.  Any balls

If only she can figure out how to fit them all into her mouth she would.

We also hit a big milestone!

She swam for the first time!!!!

And not in a swampy mud pit in Aunt Kira's backyard but in a creek!

I can't wait to find more (quiet, people free) spots for her to swim in!

Last but not least, Amigo is perfect as always.  I love her the most.  Still hiking at 15 every morning 

:-)

Regionals 2012

June 8th 2012 brought the BC/Yukon Regional Championships to Nanaimo.  Emma and I packed up the car with 7, Cooper, Beezer, Reckon and Avion and headed to Nanaimo for 3 nights.

This time around I was a bit nervous.  Last year I didn't expect much with teenage Beezer, but this year I knew how good he has become.  We were doing really well in class and Gerhard whispering "I expect you on the podium" wasn't helping to calm my butterflies.

I put him in a warm up game just to get the heebie jeebies out, so when Saturday approached I felt a little more comfortable.  He really is a joy to run.  Always happy and consistent.

Unfortunately I didn't get any of the runs on film, but the run down goes like this:

Saturday: Standard: B did great, except I messed him up on the weaves. Didn't give him space. Dumb Mom.
                  Jumpers:  Clean and beautiful and under time!  Enough for a second place ribbon!!!
                  Gamblers:  Good opening, got a mini gamble, but we don't have out work so I wasn't expecting to get the main gamble. He tried his darndest though! 29 points.

Sunday: Standard:  Beezer did awesome.  I, on the other hand, got lost. Since when does that happen???  Would have been a clean run otherwise.  Stupid mommy.
         
 Jumpers:  Beautiful run, would have been clean too.  If I didn't slip. Seriously?!  When do I fall??  I slipped right before a tunnel and he saw me go down so turned briefly to see what I was doing. It was such a nice run!  Judge should have given it to us.  So proud of him.
         
Gamblers:  Excellent opening!  Got the mini gamble twice but popped off the teeter on the second go (my fault).  No main gamble. 37 points.


I was very very proud of the Beez.  He did AMAZING.  And he was such a joy to travel with too. We got enough points (369.69) to qualify us for Nationals!!

Reckon and Avion did pretty well too.  I love Reckon.  He is just so friendly with everyone.  I'm pretty convinced he thought his name was "Good morning" "Hi Faren" or "How was your  run?"
Whenever anyone spoke to me he was absolutely convinced they wanted to say hello to him.

Sometimes annoying, but compared to Avion's "killeveryonethatappraoches" attitude it's the best thing ever.

She actually did pretty well.  I think she was pretty much flooded and overwhelmed, but she didn't have a freak out episode.  She did grab for someones coat as it floated by. She was always on high high high alert.  Just so much to see.  Watching the dogs do agility was a lot of fun to her.  She was very good in the off leash area.  Shove a ball in her mouth and she just trots around and around and around.

God forbid she stops moving.

They  both settled in their crate without too much yelling and screaming.

 For the most part...

Overall I was pretty impressed with all of them.  It could have been a complete chaotic mess. Good pups :)

Family Photo

I was finally able to get a photo of all 4 dogs, since I can walk 2 inches away from Avi now while she is in a sit stay.

I have good looking dogs!

Lynn Valley Days

This past weekend Beezer was asked to participate in Lynn Valley Days Q ball agility demo.  I was happy to get my handsome boy out for a day of sunshine and agility.  He did so so well.  I wondered how he would do in a large crowd full of kids, but he wasn't bothered at all.  He performed flawlessly and even did a few zoomies in between runs :)

Happy boy.

I took R out to practice his stuff in between shows.  I didn't expect much since there was a lot of distraction.  He must be maturing.  He worked with me the whole time!  And since his favorite thing is people, I let him out a lot to socialize with kids.  I cannot express how happy it makes me trusting him with all those people.  He is such a good boy.

Avi was a bit overwhelmed at the beginning.  Walking through the crowd was a bit much for her.  The beginning of any outing usually gets her fired up.  I was pleasantly surprised that after a little bit, she settled in.

 I was able to work her around the crowd of kids on a few tunnels, and she was fine with people milling about.  I made sure that she could approach people if they wanted to say hello.  It's better if it's her choice.  At one point she was surrounded by half a dozen kids throwing food into her kennel, as well as 4 teenagers playing with her and her frisbee. Good girl!

At one point I had to tie her up while I packed up the car.  A woman went right up to her, leaned over and petted her.  That wasn't a problem.  She's just so funny to figure out.  Something I think would trigger her, doesn't at all.  Where as earlier she completely lost her cool.  Over a feather.




Even Amigo got to run in the demo!  She was so happy to do her thing.  And eat hot dogs.  She did the tunnels, jumps and weaves. No contacts, but she was flying!  I caught her once vacating the premises to visit the hamburger/hot dog tent.  Still a food hound :)

My mom took her home before I was able to get pictures of her.

All in all a great weekend!

Sheep Herding

This weekend I look the two Mals sheep herding after Ring practice. I wasn't too sure what to expect with either of them. Reckon has seen sheep before, about a year ago. That wasn't a good experience. Reckon was intense and John didn't know what to do with him. So he held onto his tail. Not so good. Anyways this time around we went back to see Shelley Fritzke. Beezer got his HIT (Herding Instinct Test) with her a while back. I quite liked her. I told her I was totally prepared to muzzle R, and for her to do her thing. I know his prey drive is pretty high. She had him on his pinch collar, and put the sheep in the round pen. This doesn't give the sheep as much room to run. She walked him around, and I was surprised at how calm he was. He was certainly interested in the sheep but was respectful of Shelley and listened to her very well. She then handed his leash to me (I was on the other side of the fence) and told him to sit. I then unclipped the leash and we let him go! Well he floored me once again. Maybe he has just matured since he last saw sheep, but he did amazing! You could see him thinking, not just running in prey drive. He listened to Shelley and respected the wand/stick thingy. If he got "inside" of the flight zone, he would go in the nip, but would back off with just a voice correction Good boy!!

I expected Avion to run in there barking her little butt off and not stop.  She surprised me too.  She barked at Shelley when we first got there, but soon settled in.  I brought her into the ring with Shelley on leash. The sheep were behind a curtain so we walked towards them and she got us to line up about 30 feet away behind them.  At first Avi didn't seem to notice anything.  Honestly.  Nothing.  Not even sheep or horse poop.  Then the sheep started to move.  OH!  That looks like fun.  And no barking!  A bloody miracle.

Shelley asked me to take her off leash to see what she'd do.  My girl was amazing!  She was actually herding, not just chasing them.  Shelley was quite impressed. She was also a thinker.  She kept her distance and respected Shelley's commands.  I was a proud momma.

Side note, there was another woman there who does a lot of conformation with her Tervs and Collies.  She immediately remarked on how well put Avion was and how she had excellent movement,  Shelley agreed, who owns, shows, works and breeds German Shepherds.

I knew she had good looks and brains :)