At the beginning of February we rented out my house in Blaine. Finally! We had been working on that thing for over a year! We’ve got 2 guys renting it out with 2 dogs. We are very happy with them. And now we can spend our time and energy on projects in the house we are living in. 🙂
I did 1 day of an ACTS CPE trial with Copper, Vada, Seven and Pro. They all did well. Vada now can move up to Level 4 in Wildcard. She Q’d 3 out of 4 runs. We had an oops in Jumpers. Copper also Q’d 3 out of 4 runs. In Snooker he jumped funny and landed on the jump and I wasn’t sure if he was ok or not and I was wondering why he misjumped and then I sent him off course (he crashed a red and I sent him to the next color). He was fine and ran fine the rest of the day. Little things are bigger deals as they get older. His other runs were much better then the previous trial so I took that to mean he was feeling better. He is now in Level 4 Jumpers. Seven went 1 for 2. I entered him in Jumpers and Snooker. It was a really hard course for a green dog in Snooker. He tried but he ran behind me and took a red that we had already taken. Pro was 2 for 2 in Wildcard and Jumpers. She ran like a maddog in Wildcard. I thought maybe someone slipped me someone else’s dog. It was nice to see. She did well in Jumpers too.
For Valentine’s Day we stayed home and made dinner. It was a nice night. The next day we took a trip to Prior Lake to get the MMBC teeter out of the trailer to start resurfacing it for the CPE trial.
I had dinner with the girls and we went to Eddington’s for soup. Yum! We’ve been meeting about once a month and it’s been going well.
We went to the MAC USDAA trial on Sunday. It is a long drive but there was no snow storm this year! The dogs did pretty well. Vada, Seven and Pro were entered. I got Pro’s second CMJ measurement. I was not happy with the judge’s measuring and her comments about me standing my dog but we got the right measurement. She only needs one more measurement by a regular judge to have her height card. Thank goodness. I hate measuring so much. Seven and Vada are both in Advanced Jumpers. Vada went first and we did ok but did not Q. I screwed up in a few spots and she went off course and we had a few knocked bars. I thought maybe it would be too hard for Seven. I handled him a bit different then I did Vada and he Q’d! He ran beautifully! Vada Q’d in Advanced Gamblers (2nd behind Feature by 1 point!) which completes her title and moves her up to Masters Gamblers. Not sure we’re ready but we’ll do our best. We did not Q in Snooker. I back jumped her again. I am terrible about that. I don’t remember our Standard run but I’m certain we didn’t Q there either. Prozac ran half of her P1 Jumpers run well and then shut down on me halfway through. She was clean but over time from going to visit. Vada also ran Pairs and did great on her half. Jan P even cheered from the crowd. But we ended up being over time.
The Monday and Tuesday after the USDAA trial Susan Garrett stayed and did a seminar. I was able to take off work. I worked Vada in the double box session on Monday. Audited the weaves session on Monday night (everyone audited). Then I audited Tuesday for beginning handling. It was a wonderful seminar! I learned so much and had a great time. She went from MN to WI and I was so tempted to take the rest of the week off and head to WI to attend that seminar too. But I had a flare up on Monday was not feeling well so a trip was not in the cards for me. I will have to wait til next time.
In February Seven started a Super Puppy class at Total Recall. We are really enjoying it! He’s brilliant! And I’m learning different ways of teaching things. It’s only 6 weeks and after tonight we only have 1 more session left but we will definately continue on with it.
We had Chris out to SchH training the last weekend in February and the first weekend in March. The first weekend I was very frustrated by our sessions with both dogs. But the second weekend I was very happy with both sessions with both dogs. Schutzhund is a very frustration sport for many reasons.
We had lunch with Dad and Dianna at Ruby Tuesdays to celebrate our March birthdays. It was a great time. We had dropped off my van to get the rear brakes done so we had to leave by a certain time. We were there for hours but it still didn’t seem like enough time. And the food was wonderful!
I had dinner with the girls on Monday. This time we went to Godfather’s. Cortney was not able to make it this time. We have not heard from Chris since October or November last year. She does not return calls or e-mails. She is due with her baby next month too. Anyways, we ate lots of good pizza and we were allowed to take home the leftovers!
Whew, I am caught up. We have MMBC’s first CPE trial this weekend. Karl and I have been doing alot of work to make this trial happen. I’m excited about it and nervous. I hope that it all goes smoothly and everyone has a great time. I’ve got my 4 entered in all the classes. Seven’s weaves and contacts are coming along. Not really ready for trialing yet but we’ll see where we are at. Pro is not weaving yet so she’s still in Level 1 for Standard. Karl and Fringe will be trialing this weekend. Kind of their debut for “real” trialing (not just me entering her since she’ll be there). They’ve been in classes for the past few months and he’s been working on contacts and weaves and tables at home alot. I have a feeling they will do a great job!