Okay, I really was going to go a whole day without a picture of Haku.  I was ready.  I felt he looked pretty much the same as he did yesterday.  But it wasn't true!  He's cuter every day - Damn him!  I love how he gently taps me when he wants something, how he likes to carry his toys outside and hold them when he goes potty and how you can just flip him over on your lap and he goes limp like a ragdoll.

We're off to the beach tomorrow for the holiday - so a Merry Christmas to everyone! 


Hanging out on Bruce's lap


Super mismatched ears ...


Followed by 2 seconds later back to prick


Hanging out with his special squeaky ball

 So I have become a collector of all things Freddie. I have a book and some stickers, now I have my very own painting! One of my talented and gifted students brought me an amazing gift today.


OMG, right;) I love it.

I can totally see myself as a little old lady and this being my prized possession. I still cannot believe the time she put into the painting, there is so much detail.. I had no idea that Britta is an art grad. How do I not know these things about her? She has been training with me for 3 years. People have so many different faces and titles, dog lover is only a small part of almost all of us. Thank you Britta.

I also held a food drive today for the Oregon Food Bank and managed to come away with more food than I could have imagined. I had a hard time fitting it all into my car. I will be very excited to drop it off tomorrow. The sheer amount donated by just my students is certainly going to make a difference to many families in need.

It is a good thing that I had all of these wonderful things happening today because Freddie was a very naughty boy today. He seriously is getting coal in his stocking this year. I had all of the dogs out in the field today so H could snap some photos of them. I had a toy out and was tossing it to Nova, which she gracefully caught. Freddie was over-stimulated and wanted that toy. He jumped her, rolled her, and made her scream. He was dead set on fighting her for that toy. I have seen Freddie be guardy with his toys, but never full out to the extent he was today, he wanted blood. I do not tolerate any fighting between the dogs, Zero Tolerance here. So he was picked up and manhandled into a corner, leash slipped on him and tied to the fence. He got the message. He sat in his spot until I released him a while later. Let's just say he did not go after Nova again. He will not be able to join us in the field any longer if he shows this behavior again. Nova does not deserve that kind of treatment, poor girl.

He really was a very good boy after the incident, so he did get another chance to play. So all in all it was a pretty good day, minus the 3 seconds of Freddie being bad.

Unlike me, Tammy has classes all through the winter, and since whenever I break for classes the weather turns BEAUTIFUL it was, naturally, a lovely day today.  Haku hadn't been to class for a while, and he was EXCITED.  We got to use his new purple harness so he didn't hang himself in anticipation.  This doesn't bother me, outside the arena he does really good with his leash manners, but when it comes to agility I do tend to let the dogs be dogs.

We introduced the tunnel today, I think it's safe to say that Haku thinks it's really cool!  Then we did our first multiple hoop exercise, which Haku didn't seem to bat an eye at the extra obstacles.  He did great running with him, recalling through, sending - he even did some rear crosses!  Woot!  It's very exciting to see him really starting to 'get it'.  His teeter was less exciting, he did not seem to associate this teeter with the same behavior we worked on yesterday.  No biggie - we're not in a rush, we'll get there in a couple years, I'm sure.

The big news of the day is that Haku's upper and lower adult canine teeth have emerged!  We're almost through the excitement of teething, knock on wood his adult teeth are worry free.  I'll bring Haku into the vet next week to see how the base narrow teeth thing is coming along.  Haku has been diligently practicing chewing on different sized balls, just in case.  At no time during all of this has Haku been reluctant to tug.  UNABLE, yes, but even when he didn't have many teeth he made do with what he had.

So Haku is 5 months old today!  That sounds so grown up!  He really is growing both physically and mentally by leaps and bounds these days.  Watching him run full out in the field today - he can actually RUN.  Without fallling over (too much!)!  It's very different to see London and Haku run, totally different body styles.  London has such a huge stride and upright posture, he seems to float across the field.  Haku is very low the ground, he's like a little stealth bomber.  Can't believe we've only had Haku for three months, he has fit in so well and we just adore him.  Very, very happy with my puppy!


Size comparison - Haku won't be filling London's shoes any time soon


Happy puppy!


Will the left ear stay up, or will he end up with adorable mismatched ears?  I'm pulling for the mismatch ;-)


White heads, coming through!


This very naughty dog's identity has been censored 


Nova says, "Wheee!"  (she says that a lot!)


Blaze and her frisbee - happy as can be!

Okay, not exactly 'agility' - but Haku started some baby agility today.  I decided to go with a down on the teeter and he had his first session of starting to offer that behavior.  It has the added benefit that, unlike with a 2o/2o, it sort automatically fixes 'curling' off the board.  So it was fun to see him thinking and starting to offer the behavior a little.  He's very comfortable with the motion and sound playing teeter games with the end of a lowered teeter, so I thought it was time to start giving him some criteria.  So very, very cute.  Or I may be biased.  Some video here.

We also played around with jump bumps for the first time today.  The funny part is that I had him watch London first ... who just walked all over the bumps. Heh.  The big question was whether Haku would find this boring going out to a motionless toy with no handler movement, but he seemed to think it was all pretty cool.  Even though London kept stealing his toy.  London did not like the puppy doing agility in HIS barn.  He didn't get it.  Haku had a good time, held his stays, actually went over rather around the jump bumps and didn't do anything too weird with his body - not much more that I could ask for at this age.  Nothing too exciting, but Haku's introduction to 'jumping'.

Haku also got to work on staying a bit when I worked with London, which he was pretty successful with.  Obviously I didn't choose anything too exciting, but I thought he did pretty good.  Haku's a total maniac when tethered, let me say.  He hasn't figured out how to chew through leashes ... yet.

Haku HAS figured out how to hump Mr Bunny.  He drags Mr Bunny all over the house and has his way with him.  He's having his way with him right now.  I figure better Mr Bunny than Mr Brisbee.

Also got to work on London's dogwalk, played speed games with him and Fenny.  Often when he does tear a stop pad it takes time for him to regain his confidence.  When the weather was so very cold and dry his pads did not fare well, I think, even with me keeping them filed and moisturized.  Fenwick and London could do that sort of thing all day though, they love the contact games.  I really am looking forward to the running contacts though, the thought of just letting the dog GO is so refreshing.  We're going to try for running dogwalk and aframe with Haku ... we'll see how it goes.

Neko slept on the bed for the first time since Haku arrived last night.  It was so nice to have him there again!


All Poco wants for Christmas is a ball


What London looks like after playing in the arena in winter (somehow Haku doesn't get this dirty ...)


Zoomzoom!


Haku now has enough hair to look 'windblown'!


Fenwick just doesn't seem to mind Haku pestering him outside of the house - how does that work?


Ah, the ears ...

Haku is 5 months old tomorrow! Which means that the 100 (or so) Days of Haku is over!  Now the question is, can I STOP taking a picture of him every day?

Zach and I headed up to Elma for a RAT trial. This is the first time we've ever been to Elma. I liked the site and it was nice to be warm too. Beep and I were on the Wild Things team with Peak and Alysa and Timothy and Steve. Zach and Nub were on a PVP team with Molly and Julia. We had a great time with our teams and mine was very understanding when Beep and I E'd TWICE! ARG! We all managed a good relay run and went from 16th place to 7th and got a Q! I could hardly believe it:) The judge didn't have easy courses and the relay was no exception. Beep and I managed not to E on our portion with a teacher voice lie down so I could get him over the correct jump. Good boy Beep. Did get two tries at that last darn Advanced Standard and had bars both times. ARG! Oh well. One was totally my fault because I got disorientated and he took a bar. Oh well, another reason to go to another trial:) Zach and Nub managed no E's until relay. Zach didn't call him into him for the tunnel and up the a frame Nub went. Darn! Molly was great the whole weekend with no E's. They managed to hang on for the last PVP Q. Nub's first try at Pll jumpers he took the last bar. On Sunday they finally broke their dry spell and Nub Q'd in Pll jumpers so now to all Plll events for the Nub. Whew! We're done trialing until February:( The dogs will get a nice break though.

Here is some video and pictures compliments of Joe Camp.

He's reading the rear cross and I think it's all because of my pointing finger:)

Zach and Nub having a prerun discussion.


Yeah, yeah...  I see the yellow.

 Being that the days start getting longer today, I thought I would go out and take some holiday photos of the dogs. Ummm, Yeah not what I had envisioned, but my dogs are so cute they make every photo adorable. Next time I will have a helper to make sure the props stay on the dogs (poor Freddie;)

Took the boys up to Unsinkable Dogs today for some swimming action.  Haku knew where he was and started barking the minute I opened the back of the car.  He certainly finds swimming EXCITING.

So we made a tiny bit of progress on the obsessive swimming Haku front.  Must think in baby steps here.  Bruce got to try the fine art of underwater puppy wrestling and Haku didn't have a chance to mindlessly swim the whole time.  He really WANTED to though!  Still no one really home in there, but after watching Fred just calmly go get a toy a few times he managed to actually focus on the toy and swim out to it a few times.  He would then drop it and go for the water, but we got his focus on SOMETHING, which is a step in the right direction.  Bruce still had to physically haul him out, which he wonders if he can do once Haku gets bigger.

I'd like to think that an older, more mature Haku will have a little more of a brain and something we can work with to help make swimming a safe and fun experience.  Right now he's just totally vacant, but I have hope.  The nice thing is that we do have access to a safe swimming place where we can get in and manage the situation.

The eventual goal is that there is 'good swimming' and 'bad swimming', and if Haku does 'good swimming' (head up, no biting, comes when called, focuses on the toys) he can stay in the pool - but if he does 'bad swimming' he'll have a time out.  It will take a while for him to get the message though, I think.  I'm confident we can do this though.  He's a good puppy.  He's perfectly functional outside the building and around the pool - it's just in the pool itself the brain switches off.

The neat part about swimming is that Haku puffs up like there is no tomorrow.  'Fluffy Haku' is such a little glimpse at what Haku will look like when he gets older, and Haku really is getting a lot of coat these days.  Unfortunately it was several hours after swimming by the time we got home and the Extreme Fluff was about gone for pictures.


Looking a little more mature!


Growing 'Haku Pants'


Haku is a big fan of the Pink Jollyball


Rawr!


Brisbee did NOT go swimming ... and he's cool with that

 The thing about researching local tattoo artists is this, yes Portland has some good artists, but they are not the best in their fields. Once I see what AMAZING artists are doing, say in Finland, there is no way I want anything less. Yup, the artist I am favoring is in Finland. Will I go there for a tattoo, no, but there are conventions that artists travel to. It is possible that our paths could cross someday.

Petri Syrajala is my artist of choice. He is known for his animal work. There is also another artist in California named Nikko that I like, but he is very well known and a lot of hype is surrounding him right now. I think he would be very difficult to get into. Artists can pick and choose what work they want to do when they are at his level, I'm not sure I would be considered.

I have had a lot fun looking through hundreds of tattoos and reading about the artists. There are some really bad tattoos out there and some really wild images. Such an amazing way of self expression. The people who get tattoos are all over the map too. I used to think of tattoos as something only young people get, ha, here I am in my 30's ready to get another one and I saw a man of 72 getting a tattoo, talk about difficult skin to work with;) I really have been enjoying spending time researching such a colorful sub-culture. I have 4 tattoos already, but none of them are what I would call art, I think they are referred to as ink;) This one of Blaze is going to be exactly what I want, even if I have to wait for it.

Went out to get some PVC pipe to make some jump bumps today.  Who knew that this was such a specialty item?  4 inches in the the biggest I could find at Home Depot or Lowes, I'll try a pipe company next week.  I tell you, why is it whenever I try to do anything handy it turns into a huge ordeal?  Every time, I swear.

Haku got to hang out with Fred today, and there was much slobber.  Haku is one tired puppy tonight, though Fred has decided Haku is old enough to learn that you don't go near Fred when he has a toy, poor guy.  Tammy gave Haku a purple harness for Christmas, he looks not only dashing, but also like he has no chest at all.  He'll grow into it!  Once again, opinion has been scaled back, currently Haku is not THAT big.  Especially after seeing a corresponding Gabby puppy the other day - now THAT is a big ass puppy.  Looks just like London did at that age too - super cute!

I need to stop feeding Haku late, as he keeps getting me up in the middle of the night to wee.  I hear he had an accident in the house today, but as I was there at the time, it doesn't count.

Holy crap, it's almost Christmas!


Brisbee very happy with his Christmas present from Tammy


Brisbee DOES play with toys!


At certain specific times of the day ... as long as there aren't other dogs around


They are so cute together


Also very cute together!


Really, just damn cute all around (though I think he's still damp from all the Fred slobber)

Looking back at 2009 tonight.  It's weird, the posts that I made 10 months ago still seem like just 2 weeks ago.  2009 just flew by, lots of great times and very difficult times too.  

Found a random video of Ernest wandering around the cul-de-sac I had forgotten about.  He was still taking walkabouts right up to when he left us.  Was talking about him tonight, and how in many ways I still wake up and think that he's there, that he's just in another room - probably causing trouble.  I think because Bonkers was sick for so long I had more time to accept that he wasn't going to be there.  In many ways, I still haven't accepted it with Ernest.  Losing both of them so close together was so difficult, I think I just went numb for a long time.  I think of them every day.

2009 was a great year though - I mean, bringing home Haku was an adventure that started back in January.  Now I can't imagine life without him!  He's my little white shadow, he's always with me.  Needless to say we've been extremely happy with our decision - Haku is just so awesome, what can I say?  I just adore him and he's fit in so well with the whole household.  Love the Ku-Bert! Very thankful that the canine crew and Neko are happy and healthy.  

Very much enjoyed London's trip to world team tryouts back in May, I may just possibly do it again next year or 2011.  Oh yeah, London got his MACH too - had so much fun at Rose City last January!  Strange to think it's almost that time again.  Very much enjoyed running my Fenwick as well, I still miss it.  We made the most of it though.  So many great hikes and trips with the dogs, they really do make life way more fun.  And what other reason would I actually travel?

So some trial statistics from this year:

LONDON:
- 14 trials (3 USDAA - one with Tammy!, 11 AKC)
- 64 AKC runs: 34 Qs, 11 Double Qs
- 20 USDAA runs:  9 Qs

Faults:  18 knocked bars, 7 refusals and/or off courses at rear crosses, 1 tire crash, 2 wrong end of tunnel, 2 missed aframe contacts, 6 off courses, 2 lost handlers, 1 missed weave entry, 1 popped weavepoles, 3 pulled off jumps Knocked bars in 20% of his runs in 2009 compared to 10% in 2008 and 37% in 2007

FENWICK:
- 9 trials (7 AKC, 1 USDAA, 1 TDAA)
- 38 AKC runs: 29 Qs, 10 Double Qs
- 3 USDAA runs:  2 Qs
- 4 TDAA runs: 4 Qs

Faults:  4 missed weave entries, 1 weave pop out, 1 missed aframe, 3 pulled off of jumps, 1 off course

BRISBEE:
- 2 trials (2 USDAA)
- 5 USDAA runs:  3 Qs
Faults:  2 missed weaves


Posers


Practicing their stand-stays (Fenwick HATES it)


Haku still loves the chuck-it!


Happy boys


Mr Big Mouth

I have had an image in my mind of the tattoo I want on my right forearm, but none of the Freddie photos have been "the" perfect image. Then H sent me this image, she knows me so well;)
This image with some forget-me-nots.
The right artist could totally pull it off. Now to him/her.

I could post the video of Freddie and I in class last night, but it would be 3 minutes of him knocking bars and me resetting them. Not to say that his contacts and weaves weren't incredible, but they looked like they always do, great, nothing new there. His jumping was well below par last night. He had a very difficult time with the 180 and serpentine into a wrap sequence. I spent my time at class dealing with bars instead of actually getting to handle him. I was frustrated to say the least.

I traveled an hour, in the deep, thick, fog, driving 20 miles an hour to get to class. Then I had to spend class dealing with knocked bars, ugh. I did not want to train him, I wanted to practice on my skills. My skills were null because I could not get past the downed bars. Freddie was really in rare form last night. He wasn't his normal focused self. I do think having this class available to us is really going to help us tremendously. He was so high and over the top last night because of all the other drivey dogs there. It is a very lucky thing that Barb has offered this class to us, we really need it.

I personally think that it was not just the other dogs present that made him out of sorts (although Freddie was howling in the car waiting for his turn), but I think it had something to do with me being sick the past two days. Freddie had been holed up with Nova, Blaze, and I, forced to watch episode after episode of L.A. Ink while I laid on the couch and blew my nose repeatedly. Two days of me without any energy to focus outwards is not something he is custom to. Even when we have bad weather I will interact with the dogs, I had no interaction with him except to feed him and potty him. He laid on my legs for two days, boring I am sure.

Our first outing was a class filled with barking and ready to go dogs, he of course could certainly relate to that. He gave everything he had in knocking all available bars. I got over the frustration pretty quickly, but that didn't mean he got over knocking them. I honestly do not think there has ever been a time where he has knocked so many in one night. I should say here, that it was the same bar that came down over and over again. I had to stop and repeat the sequence so we could do it without a bar down, but he had other ideas. The same bars repeatedly came down. I of course could not move on because it bugged me. Next time I will give it no more than 2 shots and move on. No need to focus on the bars when we are in class. I can go and train on my own to focus on that.

This weekend I am going to set up 180 exercises and train them. He does have issues turning. He does everything so tightly, even when it is not needed. Freddie really is such a good boy and I am never frustrated with him, just my ability to communicate what is important, like bars. Although I am sure Freddie was trying to tell me what was important to him while I was sick, and I ignored his requests and made him lay around while I watched a show about tattoo artists hour after hour.

Because of all of my time watching episode after episode of L.A. Ink, I am certainly more open to another tattoo. I have been researching tattoo artists in Portland, and I feel like there are a few options. I have decided I want Freddie tattooed on my forearm. I have so many photos available to choose from, that it will be difficult to chose the actual image. I have a few favorites, but sheesh, between H and I, which one do I choose? Any Ideas?

;
There is this one, but I think it may have something to do with the actual composition of the photo than actually Freddie himself.


This one because it is so classic Freddie, but he was still a puppy in this shot. And like 100 more I am going through. I just can't find the right one. I am sure it will take some time to find the right image and the right artist. Luckily I live in a city that promotes artists and I shouldn't have too much of a problem finding the right person to do the work. I sometimes think having too many choices can be more difficult though;)

Hopefully classes will resume for London at the end of January, I've so been enjoying playing with the Bun. London was slower today on the contacts, it took me a while to remember that he had ripped his stop pad earlier in the week. They do heal pretty quickly, but there are certain things like contacts that will be ouchy. So I don't think we made much progress on the whole rubberized contact department, but at least he's had more experience with them.

Tried to dry London's feet before we ran, and did a lot less than last week - so hopefully his feet are okay. I'm probably jinxing myself here, but I'm actually feeling like we're making some progress with the rear crosses. It's certainly not my move of choice, but I feel like I'm choking up less and actually moving through them better. I've had some really great practice sessions this week that were very encouraging. Both London and I seem a lot more confident with them, which is a nice feeling.

Didn't do too much rear crossing today, but those that I did were issue free. Well, except extreme rear crosses at the weaves! London CAN do these, just not the first time I do it. It's not a move I would use in competition. I have been feeling thankful that I did train so many rear crosses at contacts when London was young recently - it's not a move I like to use, but there are times when it's really useful. One of London's greatest strengths is his commitment to obstacles. If he thinks that's what I want, he goes for it - he really does trust that I mean what I say on course. Such a good boy. When the stop pad is all healed up we'll go do some contact work at the barn I think. I do like the rubber, but it has not been good for his contacts in general.

Used 9 weaves in class tonight, something London rarely ever sees. He did good for the most part, until I tried some blind crosses. I think had it been a normal set of weaves he would not have come out early, but because they exit on the opposite side than normal with 9 weaves I think that's where the confusion was. He figured it out though.



Haku got to come in after class to play with Meri. At least, that was the plan. Haku says that girls are ICKY. He's certainly been pretty consistent that when he meets a girl of a 'puppyish' age he's pretty much universally been a snot to them at first. So he gave Meri the cold shoulder for quite a while and we worked on a few behaviors. Finally he did crack and they did play together, which was very cute. No problems with recalls here today - maybe we're making progress.

Oh, and Haku looks to be almost the same size as Meri at this point. My puppy is ginormous! I'll feel a little better when he finally turns 5 months next week. Having a monster sized 4 month old is just not as bad as a big 5 month old.

Another cute Haku moment today, I was grooming the border collies today and started with Haku. He's REALLY learned to love the grooming! Which is good, the amount of dog slobber he gets around his neck and head is just gross. They have literally stained the hair behind his ears brown with slobber. So gross. Anyway, so give him a brushing and then tried to do London. Haku would just shove London out of the way, "MY brush!" He wouldn't quit either, he was in the way the whole time, demanding his fair share of nail trimming. I couldn't really complain, I'm glad he enjoys being brushed so much!

Haku doesn't seem to be having any issues since his dental work. He can pick up some balls, but smooth ones, like Orbee balls are a no go. He can gum everything to death, pretty much. He seems to be feeling great and he's action packed.

So a few training things with the Bert, I was looking at the Sue Ailsby training levels as a good test to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything important with the puppy (thanks bordergirlsmom !). So first, Haku doesn't really have a recall. I mean, not a real recall - you know, the kind where you call them and you're pretty such they'll come.  Kind of important, so I've been trying to get some remedial recall work done.

One thing I've never done with him was recalls between two people. Heidi kindly agreed to help me with this last night after class. Right off the bat, he liked her treats better than mine ... so he was like, "I acknowledge your recall, but I think I'll stay here where the treats are more to my liking." Heh. So then I brought out a toy which he found more interesting and he went back and forth a few times between us ... then decided he had this game down and would randomly run back and forth, waiting for good stuff. Why wait for a recall? Just arrive and see who's got something good. Yeah, I didn't really teach my puppy a recall. We'll keep working on that.

The other behaviors from the levels that I've never trained are targeting and a stand. Not really behaviors I ever use, but it's fun to have a reason to train random tricks I'll never really use! I don't ever use much targeting, if I want my dogs to go target something, it's easy enough to teach them to target THE OBJECT rather than messing about with intermediate targets. This might be different if I had a lot of need to train different behaviors than I do - but for my dogs, in our every day life, I have never used a target. I have trained targets with just about every dog at some point as a trick type thing, but I don't use them. So Haku got to learn to target a plate and a stick with his nose. We also tried some with hand targeting, but it was funny to see while he immediately started interacting with the other targets, he just did not get the hand target. Mostly because he thought I was cueing him for something else, I think. So I didn't spend much time with it. I did not have the same issues that I did with London, Haku did not just spend the entire time trying to play with, tug or fetch the targets - Haku got the point. Mission accomplished.

Then there was the stand, which does actually have a useful application for measurements in agility. I don't think Haku necessarily understands the position at this point, but he quickly grasped the concept of 'whatever position you're in when I tell you to 'wait', stay like that until released'. We've proofed it a little, then took it on the road today and he seems to grasp the concept.

Speaking of which, took both London and Haku out for a walk today, it was so easy it was ridiculous. No problems at all with leash manners and Haku seemed more confident having London along. London is a rock, that's for sure, nothing startles that dog. Giant pink elephants could go flying by and he wouldn't even bat an eye. Had a lovely time, the border collies together just crack me up. Border collies aren't like real dogs, that's for sure. Out with London, Haku's recall was 100%, even trying to make it 'hard'. Haku's recall was better than 'Two Time London', that's for sure.


"I hear you call me, but I want you to think about this. Wouldn't you much rather come out and play with me instead?"

Haku is almost 5 months old - he needs to go meet some sheep and see what he thinks of them! So far, London is good for stalking anyway.
 

Okay, yeah - technically we're trespassing. If only the border collies knew, they'd be appalled - border collies like rules


More troublemaking border collies in the cemetery (if only they knew ...)


Who doesn't enjoy a big white head? I mean, on a dog.


The Toothless Wonder

 
London is a LOT faster than Haku - but Haku is at least brave enough to try to keep up these days!


London is good at smiling for the camera ... Haku always looks like one of those serious anime characters

I always find it funny how there is such a large percentage of the population that has complaining as a recreational hobby. So many people really do love it, and the internet is such a FABULOUS forum to get people to LISTEN to them, which I think is where it all comes from. Complaining gives them attention, ironically more attention than saying something nice. Complain and the whole world complains with you.

Lots of complaints about the invitational this year. Don't get me wrong, I think I would be really crabby too had I been invited to showcase a breed for AKC and ended up in such crappy conditions. The invitational is a weird event, and certainly it's a promotional item for the AKC, more than nationals and the like. One would think that it would be a very 'professional' event. So expectations weren't met, the rain was unexpected for that area of the country and the situation was miserable.

So who do you hear complaining about it? Yes, the occasional person that was actually there - but mostly just people that weren't even there. They just want to complain because ... they want to feel self righteous? The question being, what did they hope to CHANGE by endlessly bitching on and on about how 'dogs got wet!' The AKC already apologized and assured that the event will be indoors for the next 6 years. That doesn't stop people from going on and on. And on.

Of course, naturally I think of it as karma. After Fenwick got invited to the invitational (I still find this funny) and people threw a gigantic snit and took their toys away, I've had a much more negative view on the things people will do to go to this event. Haven't run Fenwick since last ... June? I really miss running my boy, still very sad. Still, big congratulations to all the Northwest crew from representing so well, we have the best dogs and people up in this corner of the world. I don't think THEY complained too much about the rain. I mean, we've got practice being wet up here.

Also been reading complaint about complaint about the new UKI agility organization (UKI or UKA?). I'm excited to see if it catches on as I think it has something to offer. It's sort of like USDAA, but with the annoying bits taken out and the courses are, theoretically, more international in flavor. As we really don't have an organization that offers challenges like they have overseas, it's exciting to think we might have a new venue that offers them! So, without having even run it, so much of the response to the concept of the new venue has been, wait for it, COMPLAINING. The one that really makes me giggle is, "I don't want to run my dog on international courses!" Okay, that's fine ... so no one else should be allowed to? Somehow there is this overwhelming urge that if YOU aren't interested in doing something therefore no one ELSE should be interested either. Then there are the people that didn't even LOOK at the new organization webpage, "No one needs another agility organization, this is just stupid."

Can I see this new venue replacing USDAA? Yes, it's possible, especially in our area. It would be a lot easier to put on UKI trials, and there are so few USDAA up here already. Still has the games, multiple classes and competitive atmosphere that I think people look for with USDAA, but the jump heights are MUCH nicer for the little dogs (a HUGE resource that USDAA has never tapped into), and they take care of just about everything with putting on a trial for you it seems like. Now, is UKI my agility dream? Naw. It's got the same drawbacks as USDAA, I dislike the games and long days. But if the courses were more fun, that would make it a hell of a lot more interesting to go to trials. AKC is nice because, at least sometimes, I LIKE just running twice a day. I don't need to run ten thousand times. I like not spending 12 hours at a dark, cold or hot, wet or dusty trial site. Call me crazy. I don't like getting up at 4am to get to the trial for 6:30 check-ins. I don't like then staying until 6-8pm at night. I LIKE agility, I don't want to convert to its religion or anything.

Does anyone see the irony of me complaining about people complaining? So what do I hope to achieve by MY complaining? Maybe that someone, somewhere that was going to write something negative for no other reason than to say, "me too!" decided maybe to go eat a Christmas cookie instead. Maybe the world is a slightly more pleasant place as a tiny bit of useless negativity is not released into the world. And then is negated by my post.

I'm on vacation by the way. Kick ass.

Puppy has been rearing to go since he got back from the vet yesterday. He wants to chew on EVERYTHING, and he doesn't understand why I won't tug with him. He's playing mouthy with Poco, he's just one hardcore little puppy. The amusing part is that he can't even pick up a ball anymore. I'm assuming it's because he has no TEETH rather than any soreness issues. He tries and tries, it just falls right out. So, yeah, I laugh. Good thing Haku has a sense of humor.


Grr - fierce puppy! Have I ever mentioned how insanely long Haku's whiskers are?


Haku says bring on the ACTION


Okay, I don't know if I'll get it on film, but Haku's left ear has started doing the 'Curl' when he puts his ears back as well (the ears curl in towards the middle of his head rather than fold back). So when he puts his ears back these days he looks like he has little 'devil horns'. He's really not evil though.

We'll end up doing 10 USDAA trials this year.
1 less than a mile
3 about 50 miles one way
2 50-100 miles one way
4 over 200 miles one way

I think we did two two day CPE trials and a couple where we only went on Saturday.

We need more USDAA closer to home:)

Wow, what a stressful day. We won't even talk about the hour and a half drive it took me to get in to Portland to pick up Haku. OMG people, it's just RAIN - you know, the same thing we had a few months ago. Really though, it's still so worth it to go up to North Portland, I really trust them with my dogs - especially my baby puppy.

I find anatomy fascinating, I love looking at x-rays and skeletons as well as doing things like stripping the meat off turkeys and seeing how all the muscles connect and work with the bones. Just a little known fact about Heather, I LOVE bones and the inner workings of things. A little creepy ... maybe. Still interesting though.

I got to see Haku's adult canines where they're waiting to come out on the x-rays - they're HUGE! So while obviously abscessing baby teeth is bad, it IS good in the long run, as it's obvious that his bottom canines are narrow and and I wouldn't have know otherwise. The good news being that we should hopefully be able to fix them as they're growing in so he won't have any bite issues. It's also possible they'll fix themselves, but now I know there is a possible issue that we might have to take care of.

So they're about ready to come in, and when they do he can go back and get 'fitted' for the right size ball for his bite, which I find really funny. Poor guy has like no teeth at the moment, I guess it looks like he lost like TONS of teeth in the last 48 hours, he's barely got anything left! The new teeth are ready to come in though, I got to see them on the x-rays. They've very cute. ;-) Good news, his top canines look GREAT, so hey.

Haku is happy to be home, super cuddly ... and wants to chew on everything. What's up with that? No picture of him today, he just looks too pitiful. He's also acting pretty paranoid that if I leave his sight someone is going to come pull all his teeth out. Poor thing.

Haku yesterday:

Everything went fine with the tooth removal. I can't remember how she explained it, but something like the tugging caused a reaction that set off the swelling. She felt the swelling should now be much reduced, and obviously with the tooth removed things should return to normal - with rimadyl and antibiotics, of course. Merry Christmas, Haku, you got a dental surgery for Christmas. Well, between this surgery and the last, he's probably covered for a few years.

The funny part was judging by the x-rays both of his lower canines are currently looking like they're coming in too close and they want to make sure his bite isn't off as they grow. Okay, that's not really funny, but to help with that issue she recommends letting him chew and carry around a lot of balls, which is really funny considering that's what he'd be doing anyway! Haku is most definitely a ball dog.