New pictures of Shiva...

Pictures of the Shiva!!  She's growing up so fast!

Eli's Agility Class

Woohoo!  Eli got permission to move up a level in classes at the agility club!  Now that he's got good weaves and control, we're good to go!

Eli's First CPE Trial!

Eli and I had our first CPE trial on Saturday October 2nd, and wow, was it awesome!  It was wonderful how relaxed and supportive everyone was.  And Eli finally looked as calm and focused as he usually is in class!

We started out with a REALLY solid standard run except for a blown contact.  Contacts are usually Eli's strongest point, so it was a bit of a surprise.  But everything else was there, and great connection!

Jackpot was the HIGHLIGHT of the day.  Eli was on fire, listening well and following directions.  His contacts were back up, and garnered us the highest point gamble you could get.  This run got him 1st place, with 57 points, the 2nd highest of all Level 1 dogs!

Wildcard was his second Q of the day, and although he did a good job and got 2nd place, you could tell he was getting tired.  He did the opposite wildcard I asked on the first two, and made me sweat it out, HOPING he would hit the right wildcard at the end!  Luckily, it was a spread jump (which he loves), and Eli had his second Q!

He has his next CPE trial on October 23-24th.  Hopefully it will go well!

Shiva the Diva Part I

Shiva the Diva's training is going well!  She is picking up skills for agility foundations, and is doing a wonderful job at stacking for the show ring!  We have our first conformation class tonight, and I'm very excited to see what she'll do!  She has wonderful focus when training, so I'm hoping the class won't be too distracting for her!

UKC Premier and Shiva's Home!

We're finally all settled in after getting back from UKC Premier this last weekend.  Nikki and Honor did a great job in conformation, and Honor had a great practice weight pull!

Nikki had three BoBs, a Group 2, and a Group 1!  Honor had one BoB and a Group 2!

On her practice pull, Honor pulled 197 pounds, which was SO exciting, except she didn't pull again the whole rest of the weekend.  :(  At least I learned to save up her energy, I guess!

With Nike, I wanted to trial him in Rally, but the venue proved to be too much for him.  I don't want to set him back, so we decided to absent the rally for Nike this weekend.

Shiva is home with us and is doing well!  She can already sit, stand, teeth, spin, and tunnel!  She'll definitely be a good little showdog, she's got such a nice gait!

Match/Run-Thrus Tonight!

Eli and I will be heading to our first match/run-thru tonight!  Hopefully we'll do well!

Wide Open Agility Run!

I'm so proud of my Eli!  We had a wide open run last night, with both AG1 and AG2 obstacles!  He did great!  Good focus for being free for the first time, and great contacts, especially on the teeter!  I can't wait for run-thrus next week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV5OIkYBuAo

Training Day

The dogs had a good training day yesterday! Honor worked on weight pull, Nike on weaves, and Eli on rear crosses!

Nike's weaves are almost closed! We discovered that he's wild about a Kong Genius toy, and it's such a nice feeling, watching him drive through the weaves for a toy!

Honor's back to pulling power in weight pull. I think the break we took really helped her, she was very excited to pull today!

Eli and I are working on rear crosses. I personally struggle with them, so I decided that we should work on them. And through the wonder that is video, I discovered that our training issues are mostly me. I can be late giving the cue, and often it isn't very obvious. Lots of work to do!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddBj7k5wcHc

Good Show Day!

I'm pleased to report that Honor and Nikki competed in conformation today, and Nikki went all the way to BIS in both shows! Nikki walked away with RBIMBS the first show, and BIMBS the second show!

Left Pivot...please?

So Nike's finally in fighting form with his heeling (yay!), so much so that he stepped on Honor while heeling because he wouldn't take his eyes off me (sorry Honor!). He has everything he needs for rally, except...the left pivot. And I'm going nuts trying to figure out a better way to communicate it. He pivots on his left 360s and 180s, but once he's sitting, he's SITTING. Beautiful sits, yes, eyes uplifted, but his butt does not come off the ground for the pivot! Lol. He finally started getting it tonight after I started making these wide, sweeping, "backup" gestures, and I C&T for the littlest of rear end movement, so I'm hoping he'll catch on! It's so odd though, Nike always gets things on the first or second try, but this one move...not quite! :)

11 days until trial. I hope I'm doing the right thing by entering him. He did the Halloween rally match, which was more challenging because of the decorations on the signs. Hopefully he's ready. I know his obedience skills are up to scratch, I just want to make sure he's mentally ready. But we're doing APDT, so it should be a nice and relaxed environment!

Great Show Weekend!

This past weekend, Honor showed for the first time in UKC Licensed Altered conformation! I'm so proud to report that after four shows, Honor has 4 BoV wins, 3 Best Female wins, 2 BoB wins, 1 Group win, and made it to BiS twice! She accumulated 98 of the 100 points she needs to champion (so close!), and has all three competition wins needed. I'm so proud of her!