Oh Yeah, You Blend

Orbit (Alkemi Cosmic Curiosity LT) won best puppy at the Kandasaga AKC match today! Awesome work again Ruth and Jim!

Our dear friend Sherry Jefferson was the judge this weekend. Zhora had a GREAT weekend, earning QQ’s 65 and 66 and qualifying in 5/7 runs. Nina ran wonderfully but we didn’t get a QQ together. She had a great Jumpers Q on Friday and an AWESOME Standard Q today and only knocked one bar that wasn’t entirely her fault.

I was SICK this weekend. I wasn’t feeling great Friday morning and it got worse from there. I would have come home except there was an ice storm here. So I can see in the videos that I wasn’t quite myself, but my awesome dogs came through for me as they always do.

Zhora Friday Standard (NQ, really tough weave entry for the little dogs):

Nina Friday Standard (NQ, weaves again):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (third place, 14 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (first place, 19 points):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (third place, QQ #65, 13 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Standard (first place, QQ #65, 28 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ, I mishandled the 180 to the weaves):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (fourth place, 17 points, QQ #66, this was a FUN course!):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, first jump since she broke her stay and we weren’t connected, really nice run otherwise):

Zhora Sunday Standard (third place, 31 points, QQ #66, also a super fun course):

Nina Sunday Standard (first place, 33 points):

Alkemi Cosmic Curiosity LT had a FABULOUS weekend in West Springfield! At only his second weekend out, he went Best of Breed over a Grand Champion (who won Westminster, no less, so a very nice bitch!) from the 6-9 month puppy class under judge Joy Brewster on Saturday and then on Sunday took Best of Winners over a class bitch under judge Kathy Madden.

Huge thanks and congratulations to his co-owners Ruth and Jim for raising and training and showing and (most importantly) loving him!

Zhora followed last weekend’s perfect weekend with another QQ (#63), and then today, as I was walking the jumpers course, said to myself “Myself, be careful where you put your front cross at the end of the weaves or you’ll pull her off that second last jump”….so of course, I pulled her off the second last jump. She got standard today and won the class.

Nina had a lovely jumpers Q yesterday and then had a perfect standard run…except she felt judge Susan Stephon’s table count was too slow, and that a three count was plenty. Oh Nina….she’ll be 11 in May, she can do what she wants, apparently I’m not the boss of her.

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 63, third place, 17 points, just a second behind Nina!):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (first place, 18 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ # 63, first place, 25 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (pesky table!):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (NQ…watch where you put your front cross I said….):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, nice weaves):

Zhora Sunday Standard (first place, 26 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (yowza…I like how she takes the jump she missed near the beginning, as she comes back halfway through):

Zhora followed up her MACH3 last Sunday with a PERFECT WEEKEND! Earning QQ’s #61 and 62 towards MACH4.

Not to be outdone, Nina earned QQ #23 toward MACH2 yesterday, giving us a double double Q Saturday. I made an error in our standard run today that cost us a QQ, but she qualified in Jumpers this morning for a 3/4 weekend, which is awesome for her!

One of our favorite judges Oksana Syrkin, gave us her usual fast, fun courses and generous wheel. There’s a reason we love showing to her!

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #61, third place, 19 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #23, second place, 20 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #61, second place, 31 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #23, first place, 34 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #62, sixth place, 16 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, second place, 19 points):

Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #62, second place, 32 points):

She earned her first MACH at the HABOC trial, and she earned her third there too!

Judge Laura English designed some tough courses, the Q rates on some were very low, but they were challenging in a good way and as I remind myself – it’s MASTERS, it’s SUPPOSED to be tough!

Jumpers today was quite demotivating at the start, and Zhora was extremely poky. She liked Standard much better and was happy to take a quick victory lap too! She got SPOILED afterwards, and her Aunt Sherry even shared her lunch with her.

She came into the weekend needing two, Friday I messed her up by talking while she jumped and cost us a double. But she was perfect after that. Our friend Zap (Saturday/Sunday videographer) multitasked and brought the ribbon to us while videoing, which looks like a “To Catch A Predator” sting on reality TV, which is hilarious.

Nina was wonderful, earning two very nice Standard Q’s. She will be 11 in May…I can’t believe it. And she still as fast as ever and loves agility more than anything.

There were very few 8″ dogs there this weekend and I only had about four dogs between them, which is quite unfair to the dogs, since you barely have time to stuff a few treats in their faces before you have to put them away and get the next one out, and the second dog doesn’t get anything like their usual warmup. I try to warm them up somewhat before we start running, but still…they cope very well with this stuff.

I am very very fortunate.

Zhora Friday Standard (NQ thanks to my big mouth):

Nina Friday Standard (NQ):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (Q, second place, 15 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #59, second place, 15 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #59, third place, 27 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 30 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of MACH3!! She hated this course’s opening, super poky, third place, 11 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, the bar down came down so late she was almost over the following jump!):

Zhora Sunday Standard (MACH3!!!! Third place, 27 points, the top three dogs were within like a second and a half of each other!):

Nina Sunday Standard (Q, second place, 28 points):

This puppy….holy moly. The last time we practiced (three days ago), Alice still didn’t quite “get” tunnels, she’d go in with encouragement but she was still climbing on top and not quite seeing the point of them. And then yesterday (her next training session) she became a tunnel suck! In fact, she was SO enthusiastic about tunnels I had to do a quick couple of sessions of rewarding NOT going into the tunnel. I cannot believe how quickly she learns, how few repetitions it takes of most things before she really seems to understand them, and how much focus and working drive and enthusiasm she has at just five months of age.

She is jumping 4″ bars. She steps on bumps so I elected to stop using them, 4″ is well below her hocks, and we actually do jumping very rarely. The OneMind Dogs “offering the jump” exercise is extremely effective. And Puppy Culture is amazing.

To say I am pleased would be an immense understatement. I am absolutely thrilled. She is amazing. I feel very lucky. So far she is EXACTLY what I was hoping to get out of this breeding.

Some really challenging and trappy courses from Candy Nettles! I accelerated in the wrong spot and caused a bar down for Nina, costing her a Jumpers Q. She had a lovely Standard Q though. Zhora doubled for QQ # 58 (2 more to MACH3!!).

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (QQ #58):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q):

Zhora Saturday Standard (QQ #58):

Judge Michele Fletcher designed some fun, fast and subtly technical courses.

The dogs and I are out of shape thanks to the weather we’ve had lately, we will all be hitting the treadmill.

Poor Nina had a pancreatitis flare on Friday night, and she was still feeling a bit icky on Saturday morning. I was ready to scratch her, she didn’t even want to do the practice jump, but then her meds and her love for agility kicked in, she dragged me to the ring, and off we went for a nice Jumpers Q. A bit slower than her usual, and I was more than ready to just stop and go off if she seemed off, but other than being a bit slow, she was fine. By the time Standard came up, she was back to normal, broke her startline stay, argued with me on the table, sassy. Love that dog so much.

Zhora was slow and clingy (hormonal methinks) and pulled off the LAST jump in Jumpers Saturday. Qualified in Standard. And then earned QQ # 57 today! 3 more to MACH3! Love her!

Nina Saturday Jumpers (third place, 15 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (second place, 25 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (fourth place, 16 points, QQ #57):

Nina Sunday Standard (second place, 30 points, had to jam some front crosses in, ugly but a Q’s a Q):

Zhora Sunday Standard (fifth place, 24 points, QQ #57):

Holy crap. I can’t believe how well this little 4 month old is doing! Huge thanks to Sue! We were using bumps but she was stepping on them. Per the OneMind Dogs folks, you’re OK to use jumps below hock level, so that’s what I’m doing. She’s doing very little jumping anyway but I needed something for her to go over rather than step on.

Today we went to a Barn Hunt workshop and found some rats! Very fun to get out of my comfort zone and learn about a dog sport I know nothing about! She did great. Awesome focus and working drive on this puppy.