My, my what a huge...

...Post!

A lot has happened this past April. So I'm going to cram it into 1 blog post.

Even though I spend the beginning of April travelling to Vegas for my birthday and onto Scottsdale for a wedding


The dogs and I were up to a lot of stuff too.

On April 2nd, the Beezer was entered into his second agility trial. Even though he didn't have 6 weave poles yet, I entered him into Standard anyways. Regionals is coming up and it never hurts to practice. I also entered him into a Jumpers and Gamblers. Well, my boy is amazing!

Even though he has never seen 6 poles before, he did them anyways! It wasn't all that pretty, but it was enough for a first place and a "Q!"

Jumpers was absolutely beautiful, I was very impressed:) It earned us another first and "Q"


Gamblers was a bit of a gong show, but we still managed to pull it together to get our third First place ribbon and a "Q"

Such a superstar!!


After Vegas, Jess, Jody and I took Ryan, Reckon, Kepler, and Reckon sheep herding.
We went to the same guy we saw before, John. I've decided he's not the guy for us. Beezer is very nervous of the guy, and Reckon is not an easy dog. I was mainly trying to keep him from pulling me off my feet the whole time!





I let John take him for our second round, and although he did warm me he would have to be "firm" with Reckon, he certainly didn't mention hauling him around by his tail!




So between the fact that Beezer is too nervous around John to come towards me, and spends most of his time torn between coming and going, plus the fact that even Reckon was a little nervous of him (and can you blame him?), and even I don't even know what John wants half the time, I've decided to take the boys elsewhere when we herd the woolies again.





Amigo is doing great on Metacam every 3 days. She hasn't been sore at all, even doing her regular hikes!


Reckon isn't putting on weight as fast as I would like, but maybe that's because he's full of my MacBook charger that he chewed. Little F*@$er. That isn't cheap to replace!
April 19th he clocked in at 43.5 lbs. Yesterday he was only at 43.8 lbs.

I've also started to put some cream in his eyes, because they are getting super gunky, green and droopy. Just a few applications and they have improved a ton!

The next few weekend will be busy too. I've managed to talk with 3 people regarding French Ring/Schutzhund. This weekend we meet with a woman who is with the West Coast French Ring Club, and next weekend we meet with Ray Underwood. Both are just going to meet Reckon and see if he has any FR/SchH potential. I'm nervous!

I know he'll win everyone over with his good looks and charm.



Or he'll just run them over.



And finally, Heather and I got the boys together for a play date. Reckon really liked Rudy, but Rudy was a little unsure. So we put them on the couch together where Reckon was a little less intimidating. Cuteness ensued:)






And last but not least, our first family portrait

Is everyone sitting down?

Because I have tremendous news! As of April 20th 2011, exactly 2 months after Reckon came into our family, Beezer and him PLAYED!!!
I have been waiting and anticipating this day since I first thought of bringing a puppy home. Beezer, though I love him very much, is a wee bit special. He is handsome, and smart, yes, but very insecure. I wasn't shocked to see that he wasn't thrilled with the addition of Reckon to the family. He tried very hard, but sometimes puppies get into his personal space, and he can't handle that. And Beezer takes his messages too far.
Anyways, after many stressed encounters and constant supervision, I went to my mom's place to pick up the dogs when I noticed Reckon's neck was soaking wet.
Hmmm,I pondered, water bottle perhaps? (he gets a little over the top when he finds a cat).
So I asked my mom "Did Reckon get sprayed with the water bottle?"

Mom: "no, why?"

Me: "Because his neck is soaking wet"

Mom: "Oh, that must be from when he and Beezer were playing."

Me: *puzzled look* "I'm sorry, I must have misheard that. Come again?"

Mom: "Beezer and Reckon were playing outside."

Me: "You mean Reckon and Amigo"

Mom: "No, Beezer."

Me: "Seriously? But how? When? DETAILS!!!!"

Mom: (not in the least bit aware how big this was): "We were all in the backyard together (after Beezer's second hike) and Beezer was doing his zoomies (a daily occurrence), Reckon would give chase. B would play bow, and Reckon would just stand there, dumbfounded. So B took off running again. More playbows, more dumbfounded looks from Reckon. After their third loop, Reckon playbowed first, Beezer followed and EPIPHANY! B ran towards R, who flipped on his back (he's not stupid) and Beezer proceeds to lay across his chest while chewing on his neck."

I found this hard to believe. I would interupt my mom's story with questions and shocked noises and squealing. I could hardly believe my ears! If only she got it on film.
This was the start of a wonderful thing, and I couldn't have asked for a better belated birthday present.

I bent down to give B a big hug and tell him what a good boy he is, when Reckon wandered over, and Beezer growled at him. Oh well. It's a start!

I later took the gang to my softball game, and was reward by seeing the boys play with my own eyes!

Here's the first video I got of them playing. Amigo is playing with Fritz. She loves him, even though he is 12 years younger than her:) It's cute watching the the brown dogs play and the black dogs play.

May this day go down in history...

...as the first day Reckon lifted his leg to pee!! It was quite an unexpected, but great surprise.

At approximately 9:45pm after agility class, I let the dogs have a pee before getting into the car. The place we do agility is in an industrial building set high up. Therefore, we park below the facility, right next to a large cement wall.

Reckon immediately started to pee when we reached the lower parking level, he was quite close to the cement wall, and I guess that's all it took. Up his left leg went!! He was a little unsteady, but held it for the entire pee. What a big boy!!!

So of course I ran inside to announce his big leg lifting debut. Nobody seemed to be that impressed. I'm curious to see if it continues tomorrow, or if it was a fluke incident.

Sorry, no pictures. Although that would be very impressive if I did have some...

P.S. Beezer was a superstar in class too. His weaves (2 sets of 2) are soooo close to being in a straight line. I don't think he'll be ready for 6 poles this weekend at the trial, but I'm hoping he can have them by Regionals!

training is hard...

...I'm trying to be a good puppy owner. I'm trying to take at least 5 minutes every day and teach Reckon something new, or at least practice some obedience, or fun games. But it's HARD! I get overwhelmed too easily. I know this is supposed to be fun, but there's so much stuff to teach him!! Plus, I'm still working on Beezer's 2by2's, which is going well, except that I may be pushing him a wee bit too far too fast. My head feels like exploding whenever I think about training, so I just don't. Baaaddd momma!

Forget it. I'll just not do anything with anybody. I can unleash fat, out of control, under trained, never reaching their full potential, furry creatures into the civilized world. Don't panic. We'll blend in just fine...


First Amigo is going to suck you into her cookie vortex




Then rip your children to shred. Especially if said children looks like water logged sticks.




But wait!



Here comes Beezer.


He's going to knock you off your feet with his log a la Bam Bam style


Hmmm, maybe not. 'Cause he's a little afraid he may not get it back...




Anyways, here's some videos of Reckon doing some training! His beach pictures suck. He's either barking at someone, or running in circles. In this video we are trying Susan Garrett's game "it's yer choice"

Downtown

Auntie Susan finally got to meet Reckon, and it was love at first sight for both of them!


She got to try walking him around the bustling choas of Denman street. Which basically means she was dragged from person to person, dog to dog...


Awwww.


What's that?? A bird, airplane, a waving hand...??


Maybe a ....Squirrel?


A cold but fun day out on the town.

Hard news to process

It's been a rollercoaster week. Beezer had a successful first trial, Reckon is,well, a biting, energetic machine, and Amigo is feeling better, but I got some hard news on Wednesday.

You may recall that Amigo was limping last week. After resting her, medicating her and worrying about her, I finally decided to leave her at the vets for a day of poking, prodding and maybe even some x-rays. The doctor just needed to feel around a bit and look at her previous x-rays from November to tell me that Amigo's agility career was over. So were long uphill hikes, and stairs. Her lower lumbar spine has fused together in 2 places, and is working it's way up her spine. I know she's no spring chicken, but this was hard news to swallow. She and I had a pact that she wasn't to age!

I'm not sure who this will be harder on, me or her. She's my everything dog! I can't imagine not running her in agility. The vet did say she can do 6" jumps and tunnels, so we're not totally out of the running. And as a friend mentioned, she isn't taking this as hard as me. All she knows is "COOKIES!" And she'll definitely be getting lots of those. Her dream of becoming 600 pounds is slowly becoming a reality...

Who said "Cookie!?"


Give Amigo the cookies...



As Amigo's career is coming to a close, Beezer's is charging full speed ahead! His 2by2's are almost in a straight line, and his speed, distance and passion is growing!


Reckon won't be too far behind. That baby has no fear!


I can do this whole teeter thing no problem!



At Reckon's last weigh in on March 15th, he clocked in at 34.5 Lbs. I also added a new protein to his diet, Beef. So we'll see how he does with that. He has decided to add dog poop to his list of delectable edibles. We're trying to break that habit asap.

I also can't help but notice that he's become super barky inside the house. Every noise from upstairs (which he has heard every bloody day since he's moved in) is something to bark his head off at. It doesn't help that he just isn't setteling after 2 hikes either. Maybe it's a fear stage, maybe the beginnings of the dreaded teenage stage. Or if I'm lucky, probably both. His habit of hanging off your pant leg, arm, any item of clothing, bedding, or anything else besides an appropriate toy, is increasing ten fold. Yay for Malinois puppies!!

Appropriate tugging:


Reckon's version of tugging:


Beezer is slowly starting to accept Reckon as part of the family, or at least accept the fact that he's not leaving anytime soon. Here's a picture I took of the two of them as close together as I could get them:


Will they play one day?!

Beezer's First Trial

Today was Beezer's big debut in the Agility world. He turned 18 months on the 25th of February, which is the youngest a dog can enter an AAC sanctioned trial. I decided to just enter him in 1 run, Jumpers. Originally I had planned to run Amigo in 4 courses, but she ended up going lame Friday afternoon. (Today she is almost 100% back to her regular self, but it took a few days of Metacam, rest and worry to get her here)! Anyways, since Amigo was out for the weekend, I put Beezer into Starters Gamblers.

He NAILED it!! Besides getting the zoomies and not doing the tire, his run was fabulous! I can hardly believe it. His first trial, his first run, and he gets a first place and a Qualifying run! 58 points all together. Go little dud puppy!! I guess I have to pick a new nickname, because he is flying out there, and having a good time to boot! Exactly what I like to see in my agility dogs:)




His second run of the day was Jumpers. I was a little worried, not only was this our first trial, but you may have noticed he missed his tire in his Gamblers run. Twice. Zoomies are wayyyy more fun!

It was a beautiful run, full of speed and joy. And it would have been a Q, if he just did the damn tire! Oh well, I've learned that I should have taken my time in gamblers and fixed it then. We had enough points at that point, so I could have taken my time and worked on it. I blame nerves for not thinking clearly!



Overall I was very very pleased with Beezer. I mainly want him to enjoy this sport, and he clearly does.

And don't think I forgot about Reckon. How could I? The little biting beast is really finding himself! Everybody he passed, whether they be human or canine, was his best friend! His prey drive is really coming out as well. Before the cats weren't that interesting, but now, we can bark and chase them for hours! Fun! So I have a few things to work with him, besides his obedience and agility foundation work...

Here are some pictures of our day out in Cloverdale.

Socializing with new people


Watching his future sport


Learning to chill


Photo op!


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