Cricket, Liz, Breeze, my girls and I all got to spend Monday through Friday at the ranch puppy sitting. The Contact Point ranch is such a pretty place to be, the weather was gorgeous, there were a lot of little lambs, we got to do some herding and of course we got to do a lot of playing with the dogs.

Fame was there with her four pups from the Fame/Batman litter-Batman is Breeze's littermate and half brother. Those pups are GORGEOUS HUGE pups, they look almost ready to go home, EXCEPT their eyes are not open yet! LOL. Fame is such a good mommy and such a sweet dog so things were pretty quiet in their area of the puppy room.

Euro was expected to have pups (Euro/Zing) and on Wednesday had a c/section. Zing is a litter-mate to Breeze and a half brother to her. It all went well and Euro had FIVE baby girls-all really gorgeous. The most vigorous nurser and most go getting pup to start with was pup #1-a little tri color girl with not a lot of ruff in the back of her head, and she looks like she has quiet a bit of brown on her back, a big white spot on the back of her neck-she was a very down to business girl. Pup #5 was the loudest and reminded me of a two year old yelling "I want to do it MYSELF", when ever I would try to help her find a nipple or get her nursing she would be so mad to be messed with like that. Pup #2 is a tri (although I did not see the brown until Karen got back and pointed it out...whoops) is a very flashy girl and seems a little quieter just getting her bearings in the world. The pups have the cutest tummies EVER, one has a big spot up on the chest, one has a spot by her umbilical cord and one has a little line going up from the umbilical area-soooo cute.










Euro is a character and the first night I was there dived under the whelping pens so fast I had no clue what was happening. I was not sure if she wanted to be there or was stuck not realizing how big she had gotten-of course she was still prego at the time. YIKES, I was having visions of trying to figure out WHO to call in the middle of the night to disassemble the whole unit to get the pregnant dog out and what was I going to say to Karen who trusted me to watch Euro and then if I got her stuck??? I was so happy when she got out, and I quickly blocked the whole area up so that would not happen again. Euro is a trip-definately a dog full of energy and always looking for something to do-or a cat to herd-definitely not a couch potato, LOL. Euro was so sweet to me before she had her babies and when it was time for her to go with the vet tech she plastered herself to my knee-I think we did some good bonding her and me this week.

After the pups were born Euro was such a terrific mom, she did not want to move from those babies, it was a really cool experience to be a part of these sweet little pups first days.

I tell you the ranch is beautiful and quiet and a nice place to just sit and get your thoughts together but between the care the sheep need, the boarding dogs-going in at night, out in the morning keeping their kennels so clean, caring for the dogs and cats, birds, the grooming, the laundry baby pups generate, keeping the pups and their moms all clean and taken care of, along with all the other activities-transporting the boarding dogs, teaching agility, I can not imagine how Karen gets it all done, LOL. It was so neat though taking care of the pups, Karen has been nice enough to let me hang around for some of the births and has taught me a lot about what to look for in the pups and how she cares for them, and being there with Euro I really realized how much she has taught me-I really appreciate that because I find that so interesting-maybe because I am a labor/delivery nurse and used to be a La Leche league leader-so the whole birth process is very interesting to me ;-).

The day before I left Robin who teaches herding out at the ranch-who I absolutely LOVE and has done wonders working with my BC Liz...let me help them get lambs and do what needed to be done with them, so that was interesting. I got some time every day to go down and practice some herding--living on a ranch must have some big advantages-although it sure seems like a lot of work. How cool to have this to look forward to in the morning--

This was my way to the sheep
first you go past the milk goat and this sheep-not sure who he is or his story...



then you go between these trees-could anything be more peaceful then walking down this path?




Then you go past the ducks on the right hand side



Past a few more orange trees



Past the garden and you see the sheep!









It was raining on the day I took all these and I had to stick Liz and Breeze in a crate that was FULL of water. They looked at me like I had lost my mind. I tried to tell them that REAL sheepdogs were used to harsh conditions and it was warm and a little water would not kill them-heck Liz dives into the water as soon as she is done with agility or herding, but Breeze is a little more prissey and just likes to swim in approved swim places, not crates, LOL.





Here is a picture of Fleur (Zing/Nel), Glee (Reddy/Bluff) and CRICKET, LOL, it was a kick to watch them playing, all very nice puppies, BUT LOOK AT ALL THAT BLACK AND WHITE ON THE RANCH-there is a lot of black and white at Contact Point now days!!! LOL.





My dogs thinking something was very wrong-they were in the kennel right out of the front door and they would sit right at the gate knowing someone would be there to let them out any second and they wanted to be right at the door when that happened. Breeze is the blue merle, Cricket the little black/white and Liz is the split face red/white.

Little Cricket is 12 weeks old and is AMAZING. She has been an incredably easy puppy and she is very smart - I LOVE working with puppies and she is really a fun one. There were no classes starting after I got Cricket because of the holidays...but I started working the Training levels by Susan Ailsby which is perfect because it helps me remember some of the things I might gloss over or forget, and I think they will give Cricket a nice foundation, along with some of the other things I have learned from all the foundation puppy seminars I have been taking. Mostly I love just hanging out and watching her, so this time of the year has actually been nice to get a puppy since most of the other dogs classes are on breaks, that gives me more time to just sit back and enjoy everyone.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BREEZE-YOU ARE 3 YEARS OLD!!!

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE BIRTHDAY PUP-

CERTIFIED BALL NUT-she grew up at the same time as my other BC girl, but that one loves to tug and Breeze would always prefer a ball by a mile. Tracy says all Blew's pups are ball dogs.

BIGGEST COUCH POTATO-Breeze spends her days laying on the couch, she gets up to move to the chair or the crate but she sleeps all day. You would never think she was a high drive border collie. In the morning of a trial or to go herding when she has to get up early she will not wake up. The other dogs are jumping, all excited and trying to get out the door but Breeze will not get up.
Pull out the ball or head to agility equipment, and she springs to live and looks like a NUT! She is always ready to go and always ready to play.

FOOD MACHINE-any of the CPBC I have fed all eat twice the amount of any other dog I have fed of the same size and they all do not put weight on. Breeze is always ready to eat and loves her food treats,....A LOT.

A SPACE CADET-Little Breeze is the SWEETEST dog ever. The first word that comes to mind when I think of how to describe her is SWEET. She can be a space cadet though....if strangers come up if it is on her terms she will jump up on them and let them scratch her, she will turn her head and turn it back and totally forget she had just been scratched on by them for five min. and she will panic and bark at them......OOOOH Breeze! It all looks more dramatic because people think because she is letting them scratch on her they are really caught off guard when she barks, and she has those ice blue eyes that really show when she is scared. Sorry friendly strangers that we have scared!

THE BEST WITH OTHER DOGS-Breeze is an interesting mix. She is a little controller and wants to control all the action, but at the same time gets along with everyone, and lately,....even when she is on leash and dogs have been lunging, barking and snapping at her she acts like she just does not even see it. She plays great with everyone and for some reason other dogs put up with her bossiness, or maybe she just doesn't boss the wrong dogs???

EASIEST DOG EVER=Breeze is the easiest dog to live with, the easiest dog to train, the easiest dog to love. Maybe it is because she lives up to her name-she is really a Breeze.

The first year we had the puppy stuff, and I had two border collies I was raising at the same time, so because Breeze was so much easier then my other dog a lot of times she got pushed to the back as far as training goes, she was easy so things were not as critical.

The next year we ended up dealing with a lot of physical issues, one thing right after another. The good thing about that was that we were doing rehab and I had to work with Breeze a lot and so she moved to the front burner and I really got to understand her way of learning and she got very excited about training, agility, etc...

Now we have entered a new phase and finally Breeze and I are just having fun. Breeze has hit three and the maturity has shown up physically and mentally on her. She is soooo much fun to be around and so much fun to do agility with, she does it all, she is good at herding, she is good at tricks, she is good at agility, she is a fun dog. So I am looking forward to having a great next year with my little buddy, Breeze.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BREEZE!!!!


hummm....what sort of toys can I find?



how about this?.....



do a little toy test to make sure.....


Yep, that is the one! Let's take it to the payer where they will give us treats!

whoo hoooo, I am all packed and ready to go on my weekend get-a-way. YIPPIE!!! No unfinished bathrooms, no flooding in the hall way threatening to make our hall way a duck pond, no dealing with my car getting fixed from the accident.
Sooo do you want to know where I get to go??? I am soooo excited, I am heading to the 2009 AKC World Agility Team Tryouts. I was lucky enough to have Alicia ask me to go and I have appointted myself to be Pickles Support Staff. Pickle is amazing and I am really looking forward to seeing his runs with Alicia, and there will be a lot of other really great people that I am really looking forward to watching.
It promises to be very exciting, I have not flown in ages and ages, and I have to leave the house at about 1:30, drive to Alicias and then we will head to the airport to catch our plane around 6 am. YIKES, I am a little nervous about that. When we get to Minnesota we will head over to the venue where there will be practice sessions, then there will be the draw for the run order. Saturday and Sunday will be the runs. www.agilityvision.com -you can pay for live streaming of the event and they will sell DVDs of most of the runs-which is how I watched the tryouts last year, but this year I AM GOING LIVE! hahahahaha. I will try to get lots of pictures!

This is a picture of Breeze from the agility trial at Contact Point this last Sunday. Karen M took the photo.

Cherry is amazing, she is doing so well especially considering how fast she has learned the weaves. I have to say I LOVED working through Susan Garrett's 2X2 program. Anyway, this is 12 weaves, I am on the side, and I have the poles open about half an inch trying to let her find her stride she finds most comfy.
POOOR Lizzie is at the vets getting her spay today. I am an RN and worked in open heart/cardiac care/labor and delivery for years, so you wouldnt think a little thing like a spay would bother me, but gosh it was so hard to take her today, I will be so glad when today is over with!

this is day 8, We are at six poles, we have mostly been working every other day to account for muscle building and conditioning. Today I rotated the poles so they were slightly open and I used a different toy for the reward, then I noticed the camera had been knocked so I didnt catch most of the poles for most of the session but when I put the poles straight I saw the problem was able to catch the last run Cherry did, straight poles, six weaves, all staked poles.

This is a video I had posted of Cherry weaving-learning with the 2X2 method. This was day three, we started before Christmas, and then were not able to work outside for a few weeks so this was like our third day of actually being able to work on the weaves, but the end of that day. There are two sets of 2x2, so four poles, and the first pole is ever so slightly open on the second pole, about an inch or inch and a half. I was sort of worried about how she would do with her body because she is still building up muscle in her hind end (she had an FHO), and sometimes doesnt like to use it. Sorry I had to use music because there was too much chatter and sorry for the big butt shot, LOL, I really wish I had not stood in front of the camera!

I took the afternoon off and went to a movie, I saw the curious case of Benajamin Buttons........
Who would have thought a love story about a girl growing old...and a guy who was very old and getting younger could be so sad??? 
I wish someone had warned me, LOL. To top it off it is almost 3 hours long, so I thought it was good, but I should have been more prepaired for a sad movie.   I guess I will have to see Marley and Me  or something like that next to balance it out. 

We live in the So Cal desert so we might get snow once a year if that, so we were pretty excited to get a little snow today.  Of course I had to let the dogs out to see what they thought, Breeze kept barking out the window at the snow falling, Cherry was WILD and couldnt quit running, Liz thought it made the world SMELL really interesting and Chloe just likes the cold so it was ok by her.  So I had been trying to do the weave poles with Cherry, we got four poles in less then two days but guess we wont be able to continue today anyway......

OK I just picked up the latest rescue and this one has really made me think a lot about how I feel about in kennel training.  I had always figured hey, maybe the owner  is not willing to put out the time to train the dog, or they feel they arent qualified, or they just have no idea how to train the dog, what ever....but I had always thought hey, anyting that makes the dog a happier dog in the home, guess it is not as important how it happens, and heck the dog comes back trained so...of course it will just be easy for the owner from now on and the dog is happy and safe, so good for everyone.  Well, this little Westie is the cutest thing.  She is just a year old, she has some of the best doggie play skills I have ever seen, she loves people and is very sweet and loving, she loves toys and has a great toy drive, she has a good food drive, she is healthy, and she has been through a full in kennel training program.  She knows how to go out on a leash and do her business as soon as you tell her, she does all the basic obedience, sort of like almost the perfect dog.  She was put through the in kennel training because she will pee in the house if they leave her and do not take her out occassionally.  She has peed all her life right next to the doggie door and continues to do so if left for too long without being taken out.  So working with these people I am just suprised at how unwilling they were to do any of the things the person who trained the dog instructed.  They felt it was cruel to supervise her in the house, or put her in a crate, they will not go outside with her to praise her for pottying where she should, after all she should know. But of course the owners kept saying they had done everything they felt was humanly possible, um hummm.   A few weeks after bringing her back from her in kennel training program the owners see no option other then turning her over to rescue.   I just always could not believe that after putting out the money and time to find in kennel training that a person would not be very committed once the dog came back home. Once the dog is trained then, hey how hard can keeping it up be?  SURELY anyone knows that even once a dog is trained that there would be some sort of committment needed by the owner once the dog came home.   Guess I can be a little naive.  So I suppose  the dog will still benefit because she is a very well behaved dog -and very easy to have around, and the new owners will have a real find.  She is just lucky she is a desirable little breed that has a breed rescue and options, she will have no problem getting a great home, but unfortunately, not all dogs are so lucky.  I am just a little suprised at this particular little rescue and what a cool little dog would not be worth just a minimal amount of effort -especially when this little one is crate trained, and will potty on command and hold it for hours if you take her out a few times a day,  talking to the owner just left my head spinning-this was a hard one, although it makes it easier to know this one is surely going to have a great outcome in the end and everyone will really be better off that things worked out this way.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2008.  Can you guess which pumpkin was done by my teenager???  Take a wild guess,...the middle one says I'm with stupid....of course that is the one my teenager did, LOL. 

Lizzie the red/white curly girl has been shaking her head lately and batting at her ear, so after I had washed out the ears a few times over the last few days I deceided I had to get her in and make sure there was nothing going on.  Well, her ears checked out all A-OK, and looked very clean, LOL, the vet said what ever I had been using had worked and her ears look marvelous, but she is still shakng her head,....so .....ANYWAY, so I asked the vet to check out a little "cyst" below Lizzies bottom of her left ear.  The vet found it and we were sort of talking about what to do about the thing, when the vet all of a sudden figured out it was Lizzie's microchip!  It had migrated up to behind her left ear, just down at the lower base.  So the Dr. felt it would still be picked up if she got scanned, which I suppose is very good and she said that was much better to have one migrate that way then down along the abdomen because those are less likely to be picked up????  But FIGURES the dog that has been to FOUR series of recall classes, and recalls very well but gets excited and will just take off.  I am not talking about a slow trot, sniffing the ground, Liz will take off at full speed and not look back.  I do not even think she is aware of what is happening at the moment, the movement is so addicting to her and she just feeds on it.  She is getting so much better but of course she is my most likely candidate to really need her microchip.  
       So I have always meant to have the microchips checked each time I go into the vets offices, but I usually forget, so I think now I am going to have to make a better effort to have all my dogs scanned on a regular basis and make sure the little chips are where they should be.  I had thought the new chips didnt migrate as often, and I dont know if that is true but apparently they still do migrate, so I will be checking and keeping an eye on them in the future. 

I am happy to introduce a new dog to our "training family".  My training buddy just got this little guy the other day and I imagine she is going to have a heck of a lot of fun with him.   I had been talking to his breeder and she called me and wanted to find him a really good agility home, so my friend just seemed the perfect match for him.  They have deceided his name will be Keen and he is 5 1/2 months old, and he has a black and white brother who will be living in San Diego and doing agility-and it turns out my friend knows the owner of his brother so........I am really looking forward to getting to know this little guy.  Congrats to Keen and his new family. http://www.doublejtraining.com/ -this is the same kennel as Jef Blake got Klepto from-they seemed like very nice, caring people. 

Chloe is steady as a rock and the sweetest  little girl

Breeze on her teeter and looking so happy to be out training.    Anyway, happy little Breeze says life is good especially when she can play on her teeter or go through her weavies!.  Getting her back into condition after her summer rehab is going great.  Contact training is back on track, Liz is doing 2020 all around, Breeze is doing 4 on the floor for the AFrame and a 2020 for the dog walk, and Chloe is doing the all popular 2020.  We have the first trial in many months with CHloe next weekend....so we need to pull out the chute and the broad jump because we almost never do those and it has been a long time and those were never Chloes favorite.  So hopefully we will have a good weekend . 

Soooooo after all this time -almost 2 1/2 yrs, Lizzie the Lizard is growing a brain!  Lizzie the curly coated red/white border collie who I have spent all this time training more then I have trained any other dog, and working with more then I thought was even possible, and for all this time has looked for all intents and purposes like a dog who had never been handled, instructors refused to work with her, and people told me I should get some type of relationship with her because they didnt have a clue how to work with her.....I took four recall classes, like not four seperate class sessions, but four whole series of classes, I took several obedience classes, I work with her every day, I have done a ruff love type of program since day one......I have had her with me more then any dog and still I could never imagine her ever being able to go into a ring safetly or even completing a private lesson without the instructor or me needing a stiff drink.  I love my Lizzie more then any other dog I have had, but.....gosh I kept thinking if I could work with her and figure it out I could work with any dog, and I knew how awesome she was and that made it all that more frustrating.  ANYWAY, so tonight she was able to do some sequences and function in front of our instructor in the yard where we work out, she did some recalls, she completed several obstacles correctly and she is even reading my handling.  WOW, she still ran off a few times, but was able to easily come back and reorient, you know three months ago I never would have thought this was possible.  I am so very proud of my little girl, and so glad I worked so hard with her, I think that all the training she has had has just been sitting in her brain waiting for the day that she would be mature enough to handle it.  This a pict of Liz cooling down after a rough session of trying to put my instructor and me through our paces-photo courtesy of Alicia.  It is just getting so exciting to see the Little Lizard coming into her own, and I think all the hard work makes it even more exciting and makes me appreciate it all the more.  I can not believe what I am learning from working with this dog, she is the bestest doggie in the world.   
Continueing to work with the little BC I am trying to help rehab after an FHO, you know what starting off clicker training with a dog who is not at all food motivated, and has no real training behind her is way harder then I would have thought, LOL.  Makes me really understand and appreciate how much my dogs can do and how opperant they are.  


Breeze  is still dealing with activity restriction after her ACL injury and hip dysplasia-what ever combo of the two was making her lame.  Her gait is BEAUTIFUL, and she is dying to run around.  OOOH just a few more weeks Breeze.  

Clicker training Liz to do the pilates for pooches exerercises and to tolerate all the stretches and to heel with me.  Clicker training Breeze to do some more Pilates for pooches exercises on the balance disc, teaching her to crawl and to wave.  Clicker training the extra border collie to work on the balance disc and to crawl.  Chloe the sheltie is trying to get enough core strength to do the balance disc. and to tolerate stretches, so there is a lot of training going on this week.