St Patrick's Day Trial

Well, as we mentioned in Keltic's birthday posts, Beckett and I had a trial at Dream Fields on St Patrick's Day. The luck of the Irish was not with us and we didn't get any Q's but we did have some really nice runs, unfortunately there are no videos.

We ran two Gamblers, two Standards, a Snooker and last up, a Jumpers. First up was a Gamblers, I didn't try any of the minis, just went for points. I know Beckett is fast enough to get the points so if I'm not sure that he'll do the minis I don't waste precious seconds trying to get him to do them. I was really happy that he did the first four obstacles of the main gamble, quite a few dogs didn't get this gamble. It was very hard to get them back out the far tunnel mouth.

In our first standard, we got five faults. I wanted to make sure that Beckett took the frame after jump 7 so I did a front cross which kept him out of the tunnel mouth I was worried about but very nearly put him in the other tunnel entrance but in almost doing the other tunnel entrance we got a refusal on the A-frame.  The rest of the run was just great. Beckett ran the course in 45.99 seconds, going 3.91 yards per second (yps). The Standard Course time was 61 seconds.

The Snooker run was another nice run. We did the red near the far end of the weaves, then the weaves, then the red near the start/finish line, then the weaves again, then the red by the tunnel followed by the A-frame. Then we started our opening, Beckett did 2 and 3a and took off for the obstacle 3b, the tunnel like a little streak. I was going to try to run 3c and 4a like a straight line with Beckett on my left, unfortunately I got a little ahead of Beckett and never cued him to take 3c so he came right by the standard of 3c. Good boy, Beckett.  We needed to get through 6 to qualify. On the course map, the reds are the single jumps with no numbers, they're not even red, they are blue lattice jumps.

Our last run of the day was Jumpers. Having NQ'd all of our other runs I was hoping this would be the one but nope, we came up empty handed. Well I did anyway, Beckett still got his hot dogs as he was a good boy and ran very well all day, hardly any spinning.  Jumpers went very well right up to nearly the end of the run. I wanted to front cross between 17 and 18 but Beckett was so far ahead of me that I shoulder turned him over 18 and rear-crossed but I knew I didn't want to go too far to the tunnel so I hesitated on course as to what I should do. Beckett not receiving any information as to what he should do, back jumped 18.  The course time for this Jumpers was 48 seconds. Beckett ran it in 35.30, for him a very fast 4.9 yps. How can you not be happy with that!

Our next trials are in April, 7 April at Dream Fields again and 14 April at Absolute Agility.  I hope the agility gods will be with us then as the leprechauns weren't with us last weekend.

Wordy Wednesday

No these are not the February pictures, they were taken 19 March 2013. The first shot is the view down the side of driveway. There was about 6 inches of lawn showing down the side of the walkway. Not any more, it's buried again under heavy wet snow. The next shot is looking down the street at all the white and as much as I'd like it gone, if it melts too fast we will have other problems.

Keltic outside waiting for Spring and the Easter bunny. You might have a long wait there, little buddy.

It's been a long winter and now it's getting really depressing. And what annoys me as much as the weather are retailers who right after Christmas put out spring fashions, outdoor furniture and lawn care equipment. Try to find a winter jacket or snow blower right now. Come on guys this is Canada, stop getting our expectations up for an early spring.

The saying is "April showers bring May flowers" which means it's still winter right through March.

My Birday Pawty

Hey dere everybody, I had my birday pawty today and it was pretty awesome.  If my hair looks kinda messy, that's cuz I was trying to take this stoopid hat off and Mums had to chase me around the table.

Last night when we gots home from Beckett's gility trial, Mums let me open one of my presents. It was a box of Three Dog Bakery cookies, they was real good. Mums eben let me take an extra one right from the box. Today, Mums stayed home with us, well she did go out for a bit. Before she went out she made pupcakes with carrot and carob chips.

After she came back home, she put frosting on them.  The green icing was store bought but Mums made the white stuff.

Before we was loud to have cake, I had to open my pressies. I was hoping for more cookies but I got toys and clothes.

Here I is with my other pressies, a stuffed dragon squeaky toy, a new fur and fleece tug and new collar and leash.

Then it was time for pictures and cake. Boy, I could hardly wait for cake. Beckett, the momma's boy sat at the table real nice while Mums was trying to get me to sit still. After the pictures was taken, Mums took off our hats and told us we could get down from da table. Wait I said "I didn't hab no cake"; so I stole one right from the plate and ate it; cupcake paper and all.  It sure was good; I wished I could hab anudder one but Mums said we could only hab one and she put some away in da freezer.  I tried to see if she left any on da table but nope. Beckett waited for Mums to take the paper off his pupcake and ate it nicely in the kitchen.

Ise not sure what the big deal with being one is all about. I feels the same as I did last week and Mum's still says I'm too young to do gility trials like Beckett. But gettin pressies and havin cake was pretty awesome. How often do you get birday's? I hopes at least two or three times a year. I think Mums is hoping I'll calm down a bit, maybe when I'm as old as Tucker, da old guy that used ta live here or at least as old as Beckett.

Mums showed me the video she made of my first year. I donno why she had ta show all dem embarrasin pictures. Beckett sure was a good big brudda eben if he is a momma's boy.

Mums made a video of me opening my pressies. There's no video of me eating cake cuz I thought Mums was gonna take it back so I ates it real real quick like.

Keltic's Birthday

Well, I guess that's all der is to say about my birday; except to thanks eberyone for der kind birday wishes. Mums said I had to say that.  But really I do thank eberyone.

Luv and licks,

Keltic

Keltic's First Birthday!

It's Saint Patrick's Day and it's Keltic's Birthday, a very important birthday too; it's his first birthday.  Since he was born on St Patrick's Day, Keltic just had to get a little Irish on. Don't you think he likes wearing his hats? Some more than others perhaps.

Keltic's party won't be until tomorrow, Monday the 18th. Today Beckett has an agility trial so we won't be home until later in the evening and we really want to do Keltic's party in style.

Don't worry, he has many presents to open and there will be cake (carob chip and carrot cup cakes). I'm sure Keltic will like that and won't mind that we waited to celebrate at all.

You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see his gifts. But one that you can see is his AAC agility card I went ahead and got him the agility card so we're all ready to go once he's 18 months old. Keltic's AAC number is 20262.  He probably won't think much of the card as a present except perhaps thinking it would be good to tear it up.

Tomorrow, Keltic will show you all of his gifts and give you his perspective on being one year old, but for now we'll leave you with a little look back on his first year.

Keltic - A Year in Review

Wordless Wednesday

Mish Mash Monday

My B-day!

Well it's not Keltic's birthday nor Beckett's, it's mine. And I got what I asked for for my birthday, a nice sunny day. It's been so depressing lately, snow and grey skies for what seems like months, well a couple weeks anyway. At this time of year, you start to hope for some nice days.

I had hoped to sleep in but Keltic was up at 6 am, I went downstairs to let them out and hoped to get another few winks. But Keltic was in and out and in and out, finally I got up, had a shower and made breakfast; it was 7:30 am.

After breakfast, I took myself out on a little shopping spree. I got Game of Thrones, Season 2 that I've been wanting ever since I watched season 1 in one afternoon. I bought Hunger Games too, I've already seen it in the theatre but it's a good movie.  I also bought sandals. A little early to wear those yet but the style is called Helen so I just had to get them. I also bought a pair of dress slacks and top. And lastly, I got a pair of exercise pants; I've been looking for something lighter than jeans to wear when running agility.

After my little shopping trip, I came home and took Beckett and Keltic to the park and afterwards we played in the back yard for awhile.

I had lots of birthday wishes from friends and family and my youngest sister surprised me with a gift certificate for Cineplex theatres. We don't usually do birthday gifts between us any more.

Now I'm having a nice quiet evening. Tomorrow another my sisters and her family are having me over for dinner so my birthday gets extended just a little bit longer.  All in all it's been a very good day and a good birthday.

Oh and Happy International Women's Day!

Wordless Wednesday

First Q

Yesterday we went to our first trial of 2013. I thought Beckett might be absolutely wild since we hadn't trialled since Nov 2012 but he actually ran quite well. Our first event was a Master Standard. It walked nicely so I hoped that Beckett would do all right; he did more than all right, he Q'd. He did a bit more spinning than I would have liked but we didn't incur any refusals for them. It's something we'll have to work on though as a spin like that did cost us a Snooker Q later in the day, where we got a refusal on the second part of obstacle 5 of the close and we needed to get through obstacle 6 to Q.

Beckett ran this standard in 46.72 seconds and the standard course time was 65 seconds. He was running at 4.05 yards per second which is pretty good for Beckett.

Beckett Master Standard - YouTube Link

Next up was a Masters Gamblers run. I didn't think Beckett would get it as we are still working on a good get-out so when I saw the main gamble with the line from 2 to 3, I was sure we would have our work cut out for us. Beckett dropped a bar on the double jump in the mini so we couldn't get those points. When the buzzer went to end the opening I was sure we didn't have enough points. Beckett did the teeter no problem as we have worked  a lot on a teeter going away and he came nicely over jump 2, then he barked and spun as I tried to get him out over 3. Well, he eventually did get over 3 and when I told him to get out over 4, he did get out but went too far down the line and actually went over 4 in the wrong direction. It turned out we had 29 points in the opening but we were way over time for the Main Gamble and in any case, Beckett didn't do 4 in the right direction.

The next run was the Master Snooker. We had a really nice opening and the close was going great until Beckett decided to spin between the two jumps of obstacle 5.  They weren't that far apart and I wasn't trying to rear cross so I don't know what happened there.

Our next Standard ran pretty well. At one point you had to send your dog into a tunnel that went under the dog walk and they had to stay out to a jump. Beckett came between the jump and the dog walk and started to get on the dog walk, so an off course and elimination. We had another off course later in the run when I did a front cross and Beckett rather than taking a jump went around it. My cross was probably too wide again.  The Standard course time was 57 seconds and even with the two off courses, Beckett ran the course in 46.93 seconds.

Our last event was another Master Gambler.  It had a flip or a get-out to the weaves in the Main Gamble so again I didn't think it was one that Beckett would do. We went in with the view of doing a good opening so I sat Beckett on the start line lined up with obstacle "a" of the mini and led out to the tire, obstacle "c" of the mini, called Beckett to me and then did a front cross to get him over obstacle "b" of the mini. A pretty easy 14 points. We did the 4 point obstacle and the tire and headed to the weaves, then to the jump followed by the teeter and the jump on the other side of the teeter.  My plan was to do the teeter and jump twice but as I turned Beckett back to the teeter, I saw that the teeter hadn't dropped. I post turned Beckett around and waited for the teeter to drop and carried on with our plan which was the tunnel, jump and dog walk. Beckett just touched the contact zone on the dog walk when the buzzer sounded. Beckett got the tunnel and jump of the main gamble but wouldn't turn away to get the weaves so we didn't get the Q. But we did have the nice opening that I planned getting a total of 35 points.

So all in all I was pretty pleased with our first trial of 2013. To top it off, we won a volunteer prize, a fleece and fur tug toy which will be a birthday present for Keltic. The tug toy is green with red fox fur, perfect for Keltic.  Our next trial is at Dream Fields on St Patrick's Day, Keltic's birthday.