Down but Not Out!

Well yesterday, our national agility championships were cancelled. They were scheduled to be held in Aug at a major equestrian centre near Calgary, Alberta, called Spruce Meadows.

I, like many young girls, was very pony mad when I was growing up, but with six kids there definitely was no money for riding lessons.  I loved westerns and horses all the same. As I grew into my teens, I loved to watch show jumping. Many of the major show jumping events in Canada are held at Spruce Meadows.  Even as an adult, I continued to love horses and watching show jumping. When I was posted to England I was fortunate enough to be able to take riding lessons at the military college and even went, as a spectator, to the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Me and Lightfoot

A hack around the college

So when I started doing dog agility, I found out that the first AAC national championships had been held at Spruce Meadows.  I thought wouldn't that be cool to run agility at Spruce Meadows, perhaps even in the Grand Prix ring I'd seen on TV so many times.

In 2010, agility nationals were once again being held at Spruce Meadows. My Ceilidh had had surgery to have a mast cell tumour removed in Jan 2010. The margins were clean but not wide, there was a very good chance the cancer would reoccur.  By the spring I was feeling hopeful that we had beaten the cancer, we had started running agility again and I had entered her in the regional championship to be held at the end of May. It wasn't to be, the cancer returned in her lymph system and I had to let her go just before the regionals were held. So no Spruce Meadows in 2010.

Spring forward now to 2019, it is announced that the 2020 national championships will be held once again at Spruce Meadows.  My plan had been to enter just Keltic in the regional championships, which I've already done but those championships are up in the air too; still waiting to hear from the hosts about what will happen. I had also already planned a trip west in my travel trailer and have campground reservations booked all the way to Minot, North Dakota.

Two days ago, my sister sent me a link that said Spruce Meadows had cancelled the summer equestrian series and yesterday the organizing committee and the AAC Board of Directors made the decision to cancel the agility championships too.  So no Spruce Meadows in 2020 either.

Keltic - 2019 Eastern Ontario Regional Agility Championship

It's very disappointing not to have a national championship this year as Keltic has never been to a national championship yet and he's already 8 so time is running out on his agility career.  It's not that I think he'd make the podium but it is fun to put yourself up against some of the best to see how you would do.  Keltic has qualified to go to the national championships every year that I've entered him in regionals except for once.  I never entered him for nationals as either I wasn't going that year, I thought Keltic needed a little more trial experience  or I wanted to focus on Beckett. The one year I planned to enter him, as nationals was only an hour away from Ottawa, he missed qualifying by 0.4 points; if he had kept up one more bar all weekend he would have qualified.

All of my other agility dogs went to nationals at least once, Tucker and Beckett placed in some events. Tucker even placed seventh overall in his height class in 2009. Beckett won the Steeplechase challenge for his height class in 2018.

Beckett  - 2016 Nationals

Tucker - Seventh place 6" double drop Veteran 2009

Ceilidh - 2009 National Championships

But not being able to run agility is not the end of the world. I hope that I'll still be able to make my trip out west this summer, I'm holding on to the campground reservations for now. Hopefully in a few weeks, some of the restrictions on movement and travel will be relaxed. If they don't open the Canada-US border, the trip will have to wait for another summer too.

Introducing Teddy

So as many of you know, I lost my wonderful Beckett in Dec, right before Christmas.  My heart was torn up, but you know I knew even then that a puppy would help me heal.  I desperately wanted another bi black Sheltie.

In early January, some friends contacted me about a Sheltie they needed to rehome, I told them no as I was looking for a bi black.  I had contacted two breeders both of whom were supposed to breed in Jan or early Feb but those breedings didn't take place. I then found a seven month old sable puppy in the Ottawa area that was available but then I started to think.

I still wanted a bi black puppy but did I want to go through the puppy stages twice. I mean puppies are fun but then there's the housebreaking, the chewing and all the other not so fun stuff that goes with raising a puppy.  So I thought the dog my friends had might be a good choice.

Teddy July 2017

Teddy was born on 6 Apr 2017.  He was purchased at a pet store in Quebec, which at one time was Canada's puppy mill capital. The province brought in stronger animal protection legislation in 2015 to help that but I guess selling puppies in pet stores was not part of it.  He was sold as a Shetland Sheepdog and I'm sure he is mostly Sheltie but he has no papers and the first owner (my friend's cousin) was the one who had him microchipped, that would or should have been done by the breeder.

I don't know why the cousin couldn't keep him but my friend's daughter ended up with him sometime last summer. She, however, lives in an apartment and found taking him out was a bit of a hassle so that's how my friends ended up with him. My friends were already thinking about a trip to Ottawa so when I called them to see if they were still looking to rehome Teddy, they decided to make a week of it and came to visit some other friends as well. They spent two days at my place so we could see how Teddy and Keltic got along as, of course, that was the first hurdle.  They get along just fine, no fighting over food and they walk together pretty well.

Out walking

With Keltic's new bed

At Keltic's birthday

They don't play together, maybe they never will. Teddy likes vinyl toys and doesn't seem to care much for stuffed toys. Keltic has tried to get Teddy to tug a stuffie with him but Teddy doesn't know what to make of that.

Teddy couldn't or wouldn't get on the couch when he got to my place and wouldn't do the stairs either but once I saw him get up on a snow bank I knew he was able to do it.  As you can see, he's learned to get on the couch and he goes downstairs quite easily now, he still needs some encouragement to go upstairs but he will go up on his own now.  He had a broken right hind leg when he was younger so that may be part of his reluctance to do stairs.

Teddy has one blue eye, it's got a little bit of brown in it. He always looks like he's giving you "Sheltie stink eye". 

He was supposed to be here for a couple months trial but with the craziness going on that trial will likely have to be extended. I had booked a vet appointment for him for a health check to make sure he'd be safe doing agility and I was going to take him out to the training facility we go to so that I could make sure that he would be physically able to do agility.  Of course, both my vet's office and the training facility are closed.  I have taken Teddy into my training area in the basement and he learnt to do a jump already but I wonder a bit about the teeter and the a-frame what with his stair issues. 

So we'll see how things go, I'm thinking he'll probably stay.  And a breeder I know in the Ottawa area contacted me just days ago to say that she is breeding her dog to a bi black Sheltie so who knows there might be a puppy in the future too. 

Happy Barkday

St Patrick's Day marked Keltic's eighth birthday.  It was very fortuitous that he was born on St Paddy's Day as I had already selected Keltic as a call name.  His full registered name is Triadic's Keltic Livinonthedge. "Living on the edge" is a line from the song Shamrock City by the Irish Descendants. Also his grandsire was Bach's Razor's Edge so that worked out quite nicely.

Keltic had a trial the weekend before his birthday and managed to get his fourth Masters Snooker Q which gives him his Masters Snooker Dog of Canada title.  At one time I never thought he would get a Masters title, now he has one and is only one qualifying score from his Masters Jumpers title too.

I had told him that I would take him shopping for his birthday presents but who could have predicted the craziness going on.  I bought him a new dog bed, some treats and made cookies for his birthday.  We had a quiet birthday at home with just Teddy, who is here on trial but he'll probably stay. More about Teddy later.

New bed

Shamrock cookies

The birthday boy

The pawty!

We have been staying home and just going out for walks.  So glad the dogs are with me as it would be rather lonely otherwise.  In these trying times: Stay safe! Be Kind!

Masters Snooker Dog!

Keltic and I went to an agility trial yesterday and guess what happened, Keltic got his first Masters title. It's been a long time coming.  He got his title for getting four qualifying scores in Masters Snooker. Snooker is a game where you have 55 seconds to collect points. Keltic, as a veteran dog, needed 34 points. The points given are based on the obstacle number that the dog successfully completes.  You have to do one of the "one point" jumps called "red jumps" before you can do one of the obstacles marked two through seven and you can only use each red jump once. Once you've done three pairs, red jump then obstacle of choice, you have to run the the obstacles numbered two through seven in numerical order.

Keltic and I did three of the red jumps and then obstacle 7, three times before we started to run the numbered obstacles.  We got to obstacle 6, the weave poles and Keltic refused to do his entry so we got whistled off.  That's was all right as we only needed to get through obstacle 5 to have our 34 points, we actually got 38 points  (three times 7 for 21, plus 3, plus 14 equals 38).

Video - Keltic Masters Snooker

It wasn't a pretty run but it got the job done.  Keltic also got a Masters Jumpers qualifying score which gives him three masters jumpers qualifying scores so the next qualifying score will be his title in that event.

Keltic has come a long way from when we were on the Snow Dogs Unharnessed Kanine Kup team. For our blogger friends at the Chronicle of Woos and the Army of Four, Keltic was only one of two dogs on the team that wasn't a sled dog.  Below is the picture on our team t-shirt. Keltic is on the sled and the Keeshund is peaking out from behind the exclamation mark. Kanine Kup is an agility house league for dogs just about ready to trial.  The first year we did Kanine Kup, our team took first place; there are four events over the course of the summer and early fall.

Spring?

The beginning of March also marks the beginning of meteorological spring.  For meteorologists, the four seasons are equally divided so that it makes comparing the weather, year to year easier; so June, July and Aug are the summer months, Sep, Oct and Nov are the autumn months, Dec, Jan and Feb are the winter months, Mar, Apr and May mark Spring.

Astronomical Spring begins with the spring equinox or vernal equinox.  In the Northern Hemisphere, the spring equinox isn't until the 19th of  March.

But either way, I don't think we'll see any flowers blooming here any time soon.  Here are some photos of our walk today. The temperature was nice but everything was melting making it difficult to walk on some walkways that were covered with water.

We're walking through that?

St Francois Park

Our snow bank

Just so you know the water on the walkway in the first picture is about 6 inches deep. We walked up on the side in the snow until we got past the water.

So I'm not sure it's really spring here but we'll take the warmer weather and the snow melt as it means spring will soon be here.

Get me down!

Dr Seuss Day

“Remember me and smile, for it's better to forget than to remember me and cry.”

Starpath's Glenmohr Duffy, call name Duffy

Dierenfriend's Nicky's Shadow, call name Gryffon

Dierenfriend's Maddie's Tucker, call name Tucker

Kelbren's Ceilidh Everlasting, call name Ceilidh

Triadic's Glenciaran Beckett, call name Beckett

So many memories and smiles because it happened.

Happy Dr Seuss Day!