How did that happen??

In 2009,  I saw the above picture on the internet. I had been looking for a sable sheltie puppy but when I saw this puppy, I e-mailed my niece and asked what she thought.  I didn't really even wait for her reply but e-mailed the breeder to see about getting him. We made arrangements and I sent off a deposit; the breeder also agreed to keep him until the Saturday of  Labour Day weekend.

The puppy was in Oshawa about a four hour drive from Ottawa. My Dad was visiting that weekend and my youngest sister was living in Kingston about the halfway point so we got in the car and went to Kingston where I dropped off my Dad along with Ceilidh and Tucker. After a short break I was back on the road to Oshawa where I picked up my new puppy, pretty sure I already had his call name picked out.

Beckett meeting Ceilidh and Tucker

We stayed over night in Kingston then my Dad, Ceilidh, Tucker, baby Beckett and I headed home. Monday, my Dad and I took the dogs to the park across the street, another woman was there with her two shelties, one only 8 months old. I made the mistake of letting Beckett play fetch and during the game he screamed and came back yelping and whining and not using his back leg.  We went home and I made the decision to go the emergency hospital, five hours on a holiday Monday waiting to see the vet.  They sent us home saying the leg was just dislocated but a recheck the following week determined that it was broken, but a clean break. The leg had to be splinted and the splint ended up staying on for about 6 weeks. Luckily for me a friend was able to take him to work so I would leave in the morning and she would come by and get him and drop him off again after I was home from work.

Not an auspicious start, I even waited to tell the breeder what happened. Despite the start, Beckett grew up healthy and happy.  He loves his Frisbee and balls. He has been a fantastic agility partner.

The years have passed by so quickly, I can't believe that he is old enough now to be a veteran dog in the Agility Association of Canada.

We had a low key birthday, no cake but a big cookie and some new toys, treats and collar.

The birthday pressies

Hamming it up for the camera

The cookie!

Happy Birthday, Beck boy!!! I hope there are many more.

Eastern Ontario Regional Agility Championships

This past weekend we went to the AAC Eastern Ontario Regional Championships. I entered both Beckett and Keltic. We didn't go to last years as the Regional Championships are also the qualifier for Nationals and since Nationals were being held out in western Canada, too far to drive; I decided to give Regionals a pass too. I entered Keltic this year as he was 4 in March by the same age Beckett had already been to two Regional events.  I wasn't too sure that Keltic was ready.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and got our shade tent all set up before heading to check in at our hotel.  After feeding the boys, we went out to dinner at an excellent Indian restaurant.  If you are ever in Kingston Ontario, check out Saber's Taste of India.

The next day was the sanctioned events, which are separate from the regional championship. I had entered Beckett in Steeplechase and Standard, and Keltic in Master Jumpers and Master Snooker.  When I took Beckett out of his crate I noticed he was limping; he seemed to walk it off but I didn't want to take any chances and I withdrew him from his events. That left me with only Keltic to run, I momentarily forgot the Jumpers course so we kind of crashed and burned there, then in Snooker I tried to get him to weave which Keltic didn't want to do, so I tried to go on to the next red jump but Keltic wanted to do the tunnel. Tweet went the judge's whistle and we were done, three obstacles and only one point. Needless to say I was very disappointed with the first day and worried about the championships.

That night I gave Beckett some warm massages and he seemed to be somewhat better. I decided that we would go event by event and if he was noticeably limping I would withdraw him from the championships.  Our first event the next day was a Standard, Beckett ran clean although we had some spinning that was luckily done outside of the refusal zones.  I watched Beckett as he walked toward me after the run and I didn't notice any limping. Keltic managed to get through the run with only 10 faults for two refusals. Amazingly, when I sent him into the weaves the second time, he got in an stayed in. I was very happy with that run.

Next up was Gamblers, Beckett had a 35 point opening and if he hadn't argued so much about the tunnel (obstacle 2 of the gamble) and the jump (obstacle 3 of the gamble), he would have gotten the main gamble as he was on the dog walk when the buzzer sounded. Keltic got a 31 point opening but wouldn't go out at all to obstacle 3.

Our last run on the Saturday was Jumpers, Beckett was clean and yet again Keltic amazed me by only getting two refusals, mostly because I couldn't keep up.

Time out chair- we really didn't need it.

When they posted Saturday's results I was very happy to see that Beckett was sitting in third place overall but was flabbergasted to see Keltic sitting in 6th place overall and that he had gotten sixth place in that Gamblers event just based on points. Beckett didn't show any signs of limping but I still gave him another warm massage back at the hotel. Cryopaks are now part of our agility bag.  We had Greek take-out on Saturday night and ate out on the back patio at the hotel that was nice as we could have a drink and not worry about driving.

On Sunday, the weather was nasty. It poured rain in the morning. I was lucky to get the dogs out for their morning business and to get the car packed up before it really poured. We did our general walk through and first event in the rain.  We had Gamblers first, the weaves were the distance obstacle, I knew neither would get that so we concentrated on opening points. Beckett was spinny and refused nearly every tunnel, luckily in gamblers you are just wasting time. Keltic was better and beat Beckett by two points.

Next up was our second Jumpers, Beckett was clean. he was running well and I was able to rear-cross without  him spinning on me. Keltic had two refusals, one because again I couldn't keep up and the other due to his inexperience. I did the same rear cross between jump 15 and 16 and where Beckett saw jump 17, Keltic read the rear cross all right but came by the jump without taking it.

Last event was Standard, Beckett only needed 38 points to qualifying for Nationals but for the aggregate results he would have to have a nice run as everyone in the top 4 was pretty close. We didn't have a stellar run getting 3 refusals for 15 faults which gave us 85 points for the run.  Keltic managed to get his weave entry but popped the weaves, he went in the second time and stayed in, he finished the run with only 5 faults, getting 95 points, again beating Beckett.. He had needed about 75 to qualify for Nationals.

4th place for Beckett and receiving Keltic's National Qualifier ribbon

I was really happy with our results overall, although a little disappointed with the Beckett's last Standard run; I changed my plan from what I had walked and I'm sure that threw us off our game. Beckett placed in 5 of 6 events and got 4th place for 10" Specials, he had gotten 5th place in 16" Regulars in 2014 so we moved up just a little.  Keltic had not only qualified for Nationals but had placed in 3 of 6 events; not bad considering I had only entered him for the experience.

Friday the 13th

For most people, Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day but it turned out to be a very lucky day for us at the agility trial we did that weekend. I took the Friday off as they have have Steeplechase and Team on the Friday. Beckett needed two Team Q's for his Expert Bronze Team so we entered all four runs and you might as well as they give you a nice discount for entering all four.

We got there early as I wasn't sure about the traffic on a workday and I didn't want to get stuck getting across town. Beckett was first up in two Steeplechase runs, he Q'd in both. Then it was Keltic's turn to run Steeplechase, they would be his only two runs of the day. In his first run there were two sets of weaves, we tried three times at the first set and then when on, the second time through, he did do the weaves. In his next Steeplechase there was only one set of weaves and after a couple attempts, he did them. He didn't Q but I was happy that he had done two sets of 12 weaves.

Next up was Beckett's team events, our partner was another Sheltie named Toe and his handler Jack. Beckett ran the circles side in all four team runs.  In the first run, both dogs were smoking fast and clean, a really nice Q. I think we were nearly 30 seconds under the course time and were the fastest team in the event. In the second run, Toe took down two bars and had a refusal, you can only have a maximum of 5 faults to Q and even then you have to be under time by at least 5 seconds but we had two more runs to get that last Q. We did it on the very next run, again both dogs were clean, another Q and for Beckett the title of Expert Bronze Team, that's 10 Q's.  We didn't Q in the last run as Jack asked me if it mattered since he wanted to try out a move with Toe, the move almost worked but not quite resulting in a off course.

Team Relay 1

Team Relay 3

Video of Beckett and Toe running Team Relay

So Friday the 13th, Beckett got 4 Q's and actually was clean in all 6 of his runs. Keltic did two sets of weaves even though he didn't Q it was an improvement.

We headed home for dinner and bed as we were back on Saturday. On Saturday, Keltic had two Advanced Standards and two Advanced Gambles and Beckett had two Master Standards. Keltic was up first with the two Standards, he didn't Q but in his first run, he did get the entry and did stay in the weaves. We only had 5 course faults and 4.92 time faults; I had to make him sit twice as he wasn't listening so that's why were were over time but he ran well. Next up was Gamblers, he needed one of them for his Advanced Games Dog title. I wasn't sure we would get them but they were both doable. And what do you know he got not just one but both of them.

Advanced Gamble 1

Advanced Gamble 2

Video of Keltic's Gamblers runs

Keltic - Advanced Games Dog of Canada

Beckett was up next for two Standard runs. He faulted in the first run but had a very nice Q in the second run.  That was number 20, he needs five more his Silver Award of Merit which is given for 25 Master Standard Qs and 50 Master Games Q's ( we already have all the Games Q's we need).

So all in all it was a very lucky weekend indeed, two titles and 7 Q's.  Next weekend is our Regional Agility Championships, hope we will still be that lucky.

Flower Friday

My bleeding heart (dangling heart), this is something I planted. I think it loves this location. It's at it peak right now; it gets kind of tired looking after the summer heat gets to it.

Bleeding Heart

Bleeding Heart

 I'm not much of a gardener, I've dug up a lot of what the previous owner put in. He had beautiful flower beds all nicely trenched. I filled those trenches in so the yard was easier to mow. Now I have these violets all over the place. They are very invasive; it wouldn't be bad but they die away to nothing and in the spring the areas where they grow are just mud.

Violets

Violets

If you want to see some other flowers hop over to:

Hailey and Zaphod's;

Molly and Mackie's and

Dory's Backyard


I hope to go back to the cemetery this weekend as the tulips should be perfect.

Día de Muertos

On my work trips to Washington DC, one of the places I have always wanted to visit (haven't gotten there yet though) is Arlington Cemetery. But recently I have been thinking that I live near our National Cemetery and I hadn't even gone there yet.

So this past weekend and prompted by an article about Beechwood Cemetery that came up on my Facebook news feed, the dogs and I went for a walk to honour the dead. Beechwood is a very large non-denominational cemetery that also is the home to Canadian Forces National Cemetery and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cemetery.

It was cold with some rain showers so rather than making it a long walk, I drove to the far end and then did a number of short walks, driving the car back down to the entrance I had used.

Beechwood Chapel

View of the older part of the cemetery

The RCMP Cemetery and the Canadian Forces Cemetery are far more orderly in the placement of their headstones. There was a sign at the Canadian Forces cemetery that you could not leave flowers or other remembrances but I saw stones that had things left. I guess that's hard to control.

Entrance of the RCMP Cemetery

RCMP Headstones

Entrance to the Military National Cemetery

Looking Back towards the entrance

Military Headstones

Another sector of the Canadian Forces Cemetery

I sort of enjoy walking through a cemetery to look at the headstones, to see how old the people were and to see what members of the family were laid to rest together. In the military and RCMP cemeteries, however I didn't feel like I should break those ranks. I stayed to the walkways and along the outside. I have walked through a war cemetery in Holland and it was so sobering to see the ages of all those young men.

At Beechwood, there were many statues , gazebos, arbours and even the pagoda in the Chinese part of the cemetery. I found that funny, there are areas of the cemetery for various faiths and ethnicities, Polish, Muslim, Jewish, Chinese, even in death we divide people or because we still want to be with our own. Whatever our own is?

Pagoda

As a retired military member I can be buried in the National Cemetery for the Canadian Forces. I guess someday I'll have to decide if that's what I would like.

It was rather cold this past weekend and the flowers were not yet in bloom so maybe we'll have to go back some other weekend to honour the dead to see the cemetery in full bloom and all green. I did find a cute stone that would work for Keltic, perhaps I could get one for the front yard. There might be other unique stones or memorials to discover.

Squirrel!!!