Bizzie Bee

Well, Bizzie's puppies are due soon - not soon enough if you ask her!
She's absolutely huge - has gained almost 2 pounds, which is a lot on a 6 pound papillon!
I feel so bad for her, she's so uncomfortable - she just goes outside to pee, then comes back in & flops down on something soft.
Her Xray showed 3 pups, but we'll wait & see - last time she had 4.
Wish her an easy delivery - those puppies look pretty big on the xray!

Trial Results

Well, it was a fun, interesting weekend. Our trial is at a barn where we've been many times before, but the minute we walked in the door, Blast started to sniff the ground like crazy. Not sure if he could smell mice, horse poop or what. This is not a regular behavior for him, so it took me a bit by surprise.
Our first run was jumpers & Blast ran the entire course with his nose on the ground. GRRRR! We were overtime since it takes a little time to sniff every inch of the course & then pop over the jump!
We managed a Steeplechase Q next - the part I was happiest with was we got the weave pole entries both times & they were not nice angles! Then we ran a really nice Standard course which earned us a 1st place & a Q and a Title! That's his Masters Agility Dog of Canada! Yeah Blast - never thought that we would get there...
Next run was gamblers & he was back to sniffing again, so poor results there.
Sunday started with gamblers & it was back to drifting off - my mistake - I should have just run closely with him & not tried to send him to any mini gambles... I swear one of these days I'll learn!
The next standard course had a few tricky parts & we ended up with 10 faults, but again we got the weaves just fine. He bailed off the teeter once, which was odd...
The last run was Snooker, & we really had to work for it, but got another Q! I'm finding those front crosses are really the answer for us - just have to make sure I get into the right position.

Anyhow, I'm really happy with our progress - as they say - "We've come a long way, Baby!"

Trial weekend

Blast & I are trialing this weekend. We'll see how it goes. We haven't been to the Fez Dome where the trial is held for quite a while so hopefully he'll keep his act together. Our first run is usually wild & wacky & this time it's jumpers, so it could be fun! LOL!

On the home front, Bizzie is definately pregnant. I weighed her yesterday - she's now 4.0 kilos - started out at 3.3, so that's a gain of .7 kilos, or 1 1/2 lbs, which is quite a bit for a 7 lb princess.
Her due date is Feb 27, I can hardly wait!

Bizzie Bee

Winter

Well, it's cold & snowy again! Last week we had some nice weather so I let the dogs out of the dog run to play in the snow-

Blast was making snow angels, but here he is waiting to pounce on Critter!







Boo - posing for the side profile!








This is Critter jumping through the snow!









Here's Cactus checking out airplanes!









And Bizzie, well, she had a look & went back to bed... She was bred at Christmas time, & I'm quite sure she is pregnant since she's very mopey & gaining weight.

Weekend Trial

Last weekend was our first trial of the year. I entered Blast in everything. I was quite pleased with his performance overall.
Gamblers was first & he was very distracted by the dogs warming up right behind him.. still has major distraction issues. He did the first mini gamble (a pinwheel) & then left the ring to find the "fun" dogs. In retrospect, I should have kept him moving away from the startline.
He would have Q'd the Challenge course but came back out of a tunnel close to the end of the course - still have to remember not to leave too early. I had a few brain farts on the weekend - guess I need to work on my walking the course skills! The only other issues we had were a slip off the teeter, & a couple of weave pole entry problems. He actually earned his Masters Snooker title! He also got a Masters Standard Q, so he was a pretty good boy.

I didn't run Bizzie, as she was bred over the Christmas holiday.

I did however, run Cactus & Critter on Sat, since Wayne couldn't come. Wow, Cactus is very evil - I'm sure she tried to kill me! Anyhow, it was an experience trying to run her - on the up side, she did get all her contacts - yup - that's what I said! Critter only ran 2 runs & got her starters gamble, but was worried & slow in the jumpers round.

I let Boo run the jumpers course & he was so excited! He ran well, but we took an off course jump (I never did run that course clean after 3 tries!) Anyhow, it was fun to see him be so happy to be at a trial & visit all his old buddies - just for the cookies of course!

This & That

Well, it is now 2011! Hard to believe, but true!
Last year was a difficult year for me, I had to retire my little Boo at 6 yrs young due to disk problems in his back. Bizzie also had back issues, which thankfully we got sorted out with some chiropractic & massage. I had some minor surgery so was not able to run for a couple of months. Then my mom was in hospital for about 2 months, so I was visiting her daily. Anyhow, all of these things took time away from any kind of training plan. Hopefully we can now get back on track.

Bizzie was just bred over the Christmas holiday, so she will be out of commission for a few months. This should be her last breeding, so hope all goes well.

Blast is always a work in progress! He is running much faster with more confidence now, but now I have to really be in the right place at the right time. When he is paying attention, he is very responsive to the slightest move by me, so it is a challenge to keep him on course. He is such a goofy boy - he gets freaked out by anything new or changed in our home. We just got a new front load washer & dryer & he's absolutely freaked by the washer - it makes new sounds & you can see things move inside the washer! Very scary!

My goal for him this year is to try to find a way to get him to work with more distractions. He is much better at indoor trials since there is less to distract him. My goal for myself is to get into better physical condition so that I can run faster myself!

I have been doing rally classes with Boo, & he's doing quite well. His heeling position isn't great, but because he is so small, it's hard for him to stay right beside me cause he can't see my face. We're working on a straighter sit & he has to learn a "stand", which is something I've never trained before. We may take him to a trial this year just to see how he does.

Humble Pie

Well, I'm eating lots of humble pie these days. 2 weekends ago, Bizzie was awesome in our CAA trial - she Q'd 6 out of 7 runs, finished her MAD, & finally got her last Adv Jumpers Q. She was a really good little girl, even got both gambles although they both had tunnels, so that was right up her alley! Fast forward to this past weekend... we did a standard course in a fun league & she was a complete brat! She had at least 5 off courses, jumped off the top of the Dogwalk, didn't listen...
Blast did well at the CAA trial - Q'd 3 out of 7 runs & only had a few bobbles in the others. He had 2 bars, both on doubles, so obviously that's something we need to work on. First time ever he's knocked a bar, however he's running faster & with more confidence now. In the fun league he just had 5 faults for a refusal, which was part of a mini zoomie!
I have to admit my dogs haven't had my attention or much exercise for the past month since my mom's in the hospital, so I spend most of the day there. And of course the weather is frigid & those little feet can't seem to tolerate the cold.
I signed Boo up for another Rally course, CKC this time, so we'll see how he does. He actually did pretty well the first course we took, which was CARO. Not sure we'll ever compete, but you never know.