TGIF & Pup Games!

Just finished playing inside games with the pups!!! The yard is just mush and mud after the storms we had last night, and it is COLD again!!! We were practicing putting their front feet (touch) on the balance disc (one dog at a time), while the other two watched from their crates with the door open. Foster was the man and progressed to start turning in place with his front feet on the disc! Lexi and Bailey were both working at becoming comfortable with both front feet on the disc for more than just a couple of seconds. Plus they got lots of reinforcement for staying in their crates while I worked with the other dogs:) Tomorrow we have agility practice out with friends, and Mike is heading out to herding practice with Bailey. It's going to be a nice weekend...well until more storms Sunday night:)

Good Luck to all of my friends who are competing at the AKC trial in Huntsville!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

A Warm, Sunny Day, Design Team, and Agility....

So today was beautiful!!! 75 degrees and sunny, though a tad bit too windy. It was a very hard day to have to stay inside! So I didn't...and that led to my entering my submission for the Simon Says Stamp Design Team just now @ 9:55pm. A little close, but I just had to enjoy the sunshine today!! So below is what I submitted. You have already seen the Tag Challenge I posted. We also had to submit two more projects.


This was an anniversary gift for my parents...don't they look adorable??

This was my version of Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas Day 1 tag. Same techniques, just different stamps etc.


This last pic was to illustrate my "style"...sometimes pictures are better than words...maybe.

So there you have it! My very first entry for a Design Team :) Cool!

Changing topics to my other fun hobby....Foster, Lexi, and I had a great time practicing distance work on the weaves and teeter today!! Foster was having so much fun that he just couldn't stay, and ran up the teeter after Lexi !!! They were both on it and stuck. I started laughing so hard! They both looked so cute and confused. :) Wish I had my camera out there!!

Bummed I don't have tomorrow off...hope it isn't TOO much of a Monday!! ;)

Art for This Week's EWV Group and Simon Says Stamp Challenges

Okay...I have been slacking on posting this year!!! Nothing about dogs or art since January??
So here is some art...

The EWV group is hosting a challenge based on Wendy Vecchi's Books #1-#3. This week was from Book #1, and had to use chipboard flowers and a resist technique using white pigment ink. I had never tried this technique before, and it took a couple of tries to get it to work. Simon Says Stamp is also hosting a Challenge to Make a Tag this week, so I combined the 2 and this is what I got tonight:) All of the stamps are Studio 490, plus lots of Ranger Distress Inks (Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw, Brushed Corduroy, Coal Black, Forest Moss, & Pine Needles), and Ranger Snow Cap Pigment Ink.

I made this tag for inspiration for the year to remind me to MAKE ART as Ms. Vecchi would say!! :)

And here are some dogs :) Bailey, Lexi, and Foster in the snow from last week. And this week it is near 70!! Love Memphis weather :) Have a great night!!!

First Post of the New Year!!!

Hope that everyone had a wonderful New Year!!! We had 4" of snow earlier this week...yes, had! It dumps snow, and it seems like the melting begins immediately:) There is still some snow on the grass. Enough snow, that combined with the cold temps have kept us from really doing any agility practice this week.

We did practice catching snowballs, running in the snow, and building a snowman!:)

Wow!!! What a Weekend!!!

Lexi and I competed in a USDAA trial near home this past weekend and she was amazing!!! On Saturday she Q'd in 4 out of 5 runs!!! That is a rarity for us:) We just had so much fun!!! At the end of the weekend she had 2 first places and 3 second places, and finished 2 titles:) I couldn't ask for a better finish for the year!! Here are a couple of videos of her runs from the Cullman, AL run the weekend before and the Holly Springs show this past weekend!

For all my non-agility friends and family...

I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for all your wonderful comments and support for my favorite hobby of agility. Especially when you probably don't have a clue what I am talking about!! This post started out from a request from my Uncle Bob, wanting to know a little bit about what I am always talking about.

In agility a Q, is a qualifying run. Besides the fun we have running with our dogs, it is what we are all striving for.

In USDAA, there are 5 types or games of agility. They are Standard, Jumpers, Snooker, Gamblers, and Pairs. Standard is what most people think of when they hear agility. It has all of the obstacles such as the Aframe, See-Saw, Dog walk, Table, Tire, Tunnels, Weaves, and Jumps. Jumpers is just jumps and tunnels. Snooker is apparently formulated after a billiards game, but just about any obstacle can be in it. Object is to get the most points. In Gamblers, you are again going after the most points by picking obstacles to complete, and then doing a distance sequence behind a line(the gamble). You must complete that sequence in order to Q. Last, is pairs. You are paired up with someone, and each team runs half of a course. Both teams must complete it correctly under time to Q.

In AKC, there are 3 types or games. They are Standard, Jumpers with Weaves, and FAST. Standard is the same as in USDAA. Jumpers with weaves can have jumps, tunnels, and weaves. (Weaves are 12 poles that must be taken by the dog in a slalom like fashion, always entering from the right of the pole and existing to the left.) FAST is very similar to Gamblers above.

There are typically 3 different levels of competition. In USDAA, there are Starters/P1, Advanced/P2, and Masters, P3. In AKC, there is Novice, Open, and Excellent. Each level gets progressively more difficult, and the Excellent and Masters have to be completed correctly with no errors under time.

Accumulating 3 to 10 Q's in each level(depending on the level) gets the title in that class and you can then move up to the next level.

That in short is what agility is all about, and thanks again for all of the love and congrats you all give !!!

Fun Raising Money for Chase Away K9 Cancer @ PKC Agility Trial

Besides having a great agility weekend with Foster and Lexi(Double Q, and awesome runs respectively) @ the PKC agility trial in Paducah, I also had great fun participating in the club's fundraiser for Chase Away K9 Cancer. Altogether the club raised $1200, and by raising over $1000, AKC judge Scott Stock agreed to run the course (as the dog) in a Little Bo Beep Costume!!! (Handled by Gene from PKC) The club needed a replacement challengerdog for Scott, and I agreed to participate with John from PKC as my handler. Have fun watching the video:) It was agility from a whole new perspective for me!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgJAHMiRjjE