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‘Kip’ Category

Woops! Fell Off the Blogging Bandwagon

March 5, 2010 by myeye

This has been the week from Hades. Nothing bad has happened. I’d just spent so much time on my murder case and dinking around with the contractors, that finally all my other clients caught up with me. This week I have run around with a water can putting out fires. Sometimes it happens like that. The result? No time to blog, no photos, no training the dogs. I plan to put in some hours this weekend to get rid of the paper piles on my desk. Perhaps next week will be a bit more sane.

I did take Chase to his show obedience class on Wednesday night. He wants so much to please me, but when I don’t spend any training time in between classes, it’s asking a lot of him to do the entire set of Novice exercises flawlessly. He sure tries though. Holmes — well, his Puppy Foundations I class has been a complete waste of time. The class is good, but we missed three of the eight classes and I’ve done no training. Poor little man — another dog that really wants to please, but has not a clue what I’m asking. I am a rotten dog mom!

Yesterday “Tim” was at the house finishing off some of the miscellaneous construction projects. I’ve also engaged “Poop Busters”. It’s a company that sends an employee once a week to police the yard. My person is Sherry who also does the duty at Kip’s house. She was so excited to meet another group of Cardis — and I’m happy because I will get more Kip reports. Yesterday Sherry said that she was so happy Kip was at Jim and Sarah’s because he was good for them. Of course, we knew that. My two boys were completely wound up by the company. Inca decided she needed a safe place from which to watch the chaos — I found her perched in a large flower pot. Hopefully we’ll get some photos of her in her pot.

One of my friends is a pastry chef/chocolatier. This weekend is the “Chocolate Fantasy” competition. He’s been making wonderful chocolate confections for the past week, and a while ago dropped off a sample for me. So, this is being typed while I enjoy a sugar/chocolate high. He should win the top prize. I wonder if he’ll have left overs?

Adrienne will be at the house tomorrow so we’ll take some Holmes photos to post. He’ll be 6 months old on March 19th. He is a delightful brat. I so love baddogs!

We are on pregnancy watch for the bitch in Washington State. Her puppies are due April 19th — I’ll tell you more when we are sure she’s pregnant. Chase will be bred to another delightful girl at the end of next week. I’m going to love being a dog Grandma.

I promise a better post tomorrow.

Category Adrienne, Agility, Baddog, Blogging, Chase, Chores, Holmes, Home, Inca, Kip, Obedience | Tags: | 1 Comment
Six Words

January 28, 2010 by myeye

I’m accepting Patricia McConnell’s challenge to describe my dogs in six words. It really required a lot of thought to capture the essence so succinctly. But, here it goes . . .

Inca – Bossy, sweet, sheep adorer, bed cuddler

Chase – exuberant, brash, bold, loyal, laughing, athletic

Holmes – wagging, smiling, along for the ride

Kip – Always where he needs to be

Phoebe (even though she’s borrowed) – brassy, gravel voiced, clown, couch potato

Category Chase, Holmes, Inca, Kip, Phoebe | Tags: | 4 Comments
Update on Kip’s Family

January 24, 2010 by myeye

When last I updated you on Kip’s family, Jim had been in a coma for two months, but had awakened and been determined well enough to come home for Thanksgiving. However, he had contracted a staph infection and was re-hospitalized the weekend after Thanksgiving. . . . more hospital care, and then he was sent to a rehab hospital where he contracted a bacterial infection. He was home for Christmas, but the first week in January was taken back to the hospital by ambulance. The hospital here has now recommended he be taken by air ambulance to the Cleveland Clinic. All this for a relatively routine heart valve replacement! Sarah says she could not sustain without Kip who sleeps with her at night and is waiting for her by the door whenever she has been out. She calls him her rock. There was certainly a reason (of which I was definitely not aware) for him to go live with Jim and Sarah and Jill.

Please send some strong thoughts for this wonderful family.

Category Dog Friends, Kip | Tags: | 7 Comments
Review the Dog Year — Now That It’s Gone

January 3, 2010 by myeye

Lots of the blog folks are doing a summary of their year. I put this together and think I hit all the high points:

January – Kip made three corners on his TD test in Albuquerque, but missed the last leg — about 40 yards from the glove — Sigh! January 25th – We drove to El Paso and Kip earned his TD there

February – Chase was back in Obedience training — loving it

March – Tom and Carolyn and Molly and Phoebe came to visit — the humans had the flu so the visit was compressed a bit. I sent Chase off to Sherri so she could remind him about being a show dog before the CWCCA Nationals and his trip to Canada

April – I went to my first CWCCA National Specialty. It was a grand show for us. Chase was dumped in the Megan; finished 2nd in Sweeps, and was pulled out in Best of Breed. In the Stud Dog/Brood Bitch classes, he was a representative progeny for him mom (CH Mariel Reese’s Alice Springs ROMb) and for his dad (CH Merrymoon Firestorm). Both his parents won — how cool is that? Chase’s dad won his classes in veteran sweeps and regular veterans, as did his mom. His mom went on to take First Award of Merit! Chase’s half-sister Dolly was Best of Winners, his litter sister Libby was second in 15-18 month bitches, his litter brother Pilot was 4th in an amazing Bred-By class, and was also 3rd in Sweeps. We drank wine, talked, and laughed. I met people that I only knew from blogs. We hung out under the rainbow canopy and created an obscene display of rosettes.

May – Chase was in Canada with his G-Ma Shelley and earned his Canadian Championship in five straight shows. Inca celebrated her 7th birthday by doing absolutely nothing useful.

June – Chase came home from Canada and began making Kip’s life miserable, bullying him unmercifully. My friend Jill asked if Kip could come live with them. With a heavy heart, I gave him to them. It turned out to be a wonderful place for Kip, but he took a large piece of my heart with him.

July, August – Chase and I continued serious obedience training. In August, Chase earned his CGC Award (CGC is NOT an AKC title — it’s an award. While it demonstrates that the dog behaves relatively well in public, the letters aren’t appropriately appended to the dog’s registered name). Kip celebrated his 5th birthday.

September – Over Labor Day, Chase earned his RN with scores of 98, 93, and 95 — the 93 was all my fault because I called for an around finish instead of a swing finish. We took a do-over, did a swing and salvaged the Q, but shame on me. Phoebe was in residence, and on September 18th – 19th, I took her to Dr. George for an emergency C-Section at midnight. She was carrying two GIANT boy puppies. Both were healthy. The mismark “Watson” had already been dibsed by Alden. The other boy “Holmes” was a puppy to watch. Phebes ran low on milk so I supplemented the puppies, weaning them at three weeks.

October – I entered Chase for the supported weekend at Valencia Valley Kennel Club. On Saturday, Powell took BOB over Chase. On Sunday, Chase was BOB over Powell and went on to take a Goup IV. He turned two on October 17th. Later in the month, Chase passed the temperament test administered by the American Temperament Test Society and earned the right to put TT after his name. His reaction to the “weird stranger” was really a boost — what character this boy has! He also turned out to be a loving daddy-dog and spent many hours playing with his sons, cleaning their ears and eyes, teaching them how to be great people dogs

November – the puppies continued to grow and be happy, funny babies. It was becoming clear to me that Holmes was a very nice puppy. Alden arrived to whisk Watson off to the land of tofu and Perrier. Both of them seemed so happy with each other.

December – We (Carolyn, Mandy and I) decided to repeat the Phoebe/Chase breeding as soon as Phebes came into season again. We are owed the rest of the litter — so still hoping for a girl. At our place, we had a quiet Christmas (well, as quiet as it can be with Phoebe-the-mouth and Inca-the-mouth both in residence). My human family is fine and we enjoyed the holidays together. None of them asks why all my clothing is embellished with dog hair.

Category Blogging, Chase, Conformation, CWCCA Nationals, Dog Friends, Dog Shows, Holmes, Inca, Kip, Obedience, Phoebe, Rally, Tracking | Tags: | 4 Comments
3 Months Old So . . . Let’s Track

December 19, 2009 by myeye

Holmes and Watson are three months old today. Their Mom is being groomed — more loose hair than I could deal with at home. It’s 50 degrees outside and the sun is glorious. Sue Young is visiting from Tulsa. Her son and daughter-in-law live here. I met Sue when Kip and I went to the Indian Nations Tracking test a couple of years ago. Sue brought her Border Terrorist with whom she’s working VST. Chase and Holmes and I went to the Albuquerque Academy to meet up with Sue and Lizzie-the-dog (Lizzie’s also her DIL’s name). On the Academy grounds, I suggested some possible tracks to Sue, then Chase, Holmes and I went to the undeveloped area on the northernmost part of the grounds. It resembles our tracking area in Placitas, but is only ten minutes from my home instead of an hour.

I laid Chase a 250 yard, four-turn track with five articles. While it was aging a bit, I laid Holmes’ first “desert” track. We’d been playing around on grass at the office, but he needs to learn that a good dog can track anywhere. The baby did his little track pretty well. It only took him a few steps to realize that he would have to use that cute nose. He found the glove and received pieces of rotisserie chicken — in the glove, right above the glove, under the glove — whoo hoo — that’s good stuff! He’ll be fun to track with.

I put him in his crate and released the Baddog. He couldn’t wait for me to dress him. He was wiggling and crying. I lifted him off the tail gate and we walked to the start flag. Our beginning leg is the pits. Chase is so excited that he runs from side to side, waters everything he gets near, barks, jumps on me. I actually must speak harshly to him (which is a rare event), “Leave it!” “Find the glove!” A few minutes of the insanity and he gives me a look, “Are we working? Why didn’t you say so?” Then the Baddog puts his nose down and off we go. He always indicates a corner in the correct direction, but then makes a checking circle before he takes the new leg. He also quarters on the track much as Kip does — moving across the center and back rather than going in a dead straight line. I think it’s how he verifies the track.

Once we turned onto the second leg, Chase got his act together, along an arroyo bed, a right turn, up the edge, down into a second arroyo and straight across, then up the side — “look Mom, a plastic cookie cutter, mmm, chicken”, straight a bit further than a left turn, “look mom, a copper scrubber, and more chicken”, several more yards, “Hey Mom, a flat piece of leather. Where’s my chicken?” Straight some more and a right turn — it’s a short leg, but there’s a knotted sock — and more chicken! We make a final left turn and head to the glove. The glove is the biggie — lots of chicken, and playing and hugs. Just need to get that first leg under control.

Happy three-month birthday, little detectives! We had a great morning!

ps Holmes went out and came back in the dog door. I used some Windex on it so he could see where it led.

Category Chase, Holmes, Kip, Phoebe, Puppies, Tracking | Tags: | 2 Comments