Nari takes on Knoxville

Today was Nari's special day with us in Knoxville. She was so happy to get in the car, she just LOVES car rides and she smiles the whole time. 

First stop was Pet-A-Palooza - it was a little pet fair at one of the banks in town. Nari loved it because people gave her treats. We stopped by the therapy dog booth to say hi to everyone. They hadn't seen Nari in a year so they were surprised at how big Nari was. We also bought the kitties some adorable handmade toys to support the cat rescue in town. You can see that Zoltan loved the catnip snake:

Next stop was downtown Knoxville for the Farmer's Market and Tomato Head. We ate outside on the patio with Nari. They brought out this huge water bowel for Nari and I think she only took like 2 sips of water. 

Here is me enjoying a mimosa with Nari:

And here she is hanging out with Aaron - looks like she was talking about something, probably the dog sitting a couple of tables away from us. I just love that you can have a conversation with Nari. 

Next came the after brunch kisses:

Next stop was Bliss where we got a leash holder. Nari got tons of attention and lots of pets, which she of course loved. Then on to Nari's favorite store - Mast General. She loves that store because they have homemade peanut butter cookie dog treats and again, she got more petting and attention. At one time she had three employees petting her and feeding her cookies. She knows where they keep the treats - here she is looking for them:

Then we headed to the dog section to get some really nice leashes. I took her over to the dog section, and apparently she wanted Aaron over there too so she started talking to get him over there (first picture below):

All that talking convinced another employee to come over and pet her so she was quite happy. She was pretty tired after all of the shopping and eating and slept the whole way home.

Happy National Dog Day to all you doggies out there!

So, apparently today is National Dog day (I saw a post from our therapy dog organization about it today). To celebrate, I let the girls do all of their favorite things today. We went on a hike in the morning. When I got home from work we went on another walk and the girls got a special treat of ice cubes afterwards. Here they are enjoying their ice:

Then, I made them some super yummy doggie ice cream for them. I basically just mixed some plain yogurt (which helps boost their immune system) with a banana and some peanut butter and a little bit of honey. Here are the girls watching me make the ice cream:

After I was done mixing the ice cream, they got to lick the spoon:

And after the spoon was clean, of course they had to lick the bowl clean as well:

There are 3 little doggie heads in that bowl:

Starbuck had ice cream mixture all over her face and Alpha took a couple of minutes to clean her up. After all of the ice cream excitement, the neighbor dogs walked by our house so it was time to guard the house:

Another NADAC trial and Culver's!!

Nari and I went to our second NADAC trial - it was the Go Dog Go trial in Richmond, KY. It was in an indoor soccer place. I was worried that Nari wouldn't like the turf but she didn't care at all! We had a lot of fun and ended up with 9 more Q's - all 1st places except for a 4th in hoopers. Hoopers was quite close with about 0.5 s separating 1st to 4th! We also got our OAC and NJC titles!!! So next trial we get to do Elite Regular which should be fast and fun! 


I actually set up the camera this time on a tripod so I didn't have to try to convince anyone to record our runs for us. So here are our runs: 





Still no Q's in chances, maybe someday we will get a yard so I can spend some time working on distance. She got half of the 2nd chances run, even though my arms were flying around like crazy, but my handling error sent her to an off course dog walk. Here is a picture of Nari with her ribbons: 

And here we are with the judge, we were all so tired:

The best thing about Richmond, KY is that they have a brand new Culver's!!!! We ate there 3 days in a row. I seriously love that place. I miss WI, so many wonderful things come from WI like frozen custard and cheese curds. The people working at the Culver's drive-thru LOVED Nari and gave her a little cup of custard. I let her have a little bit because she was such a hard worker this weekend. Here is a picture of Nari enjoying her custard and an amazing cheese curd. 

I just found out that the nearest Culver's is about 2 hours away in Mufreesboro - luckily they have agility trials there so I'll be able to get some more Culver's soon!!!! 

Random pictures and playing with Salsas

Not too much going on here, so I've decided to post some old photos and a video. We missed the AKK Specialty this year, so the UAKKA mailed us our Parade of Title Holders ribbons. Here is Nari modeling her ribbon for her USDAA Agility Dog title. Most of the clubs around here give out big rosettes for the AD title but the trial we ended up earning the title at of course was one of the few that didn't give out rosettes so she got one from the UAKKA. 

And here are some pictures of Starbuck being, well, Starbuck (which involves a lot of laying around the house being lazy): 

Some more cute Nari photos, that girl LOVES to pose for the camera:

And Alpha is also good at making some really cute poses and chewing on Nylabones:

And here is a little video I made of the girls playing with their Salsas from West Paw Design - those have got to be Alpha's favorite toys. She gets really mad at me when I put them away. 

 

Happy Birthday, Nari!!

I can't believe that Nari is two already! I made this video of photos from the year:



For her birthday she got to go on a mile hike with her sisters in the greenway this morning. Then they got some tasty breakfast of Orijen with fish oil and a Yummy Chummy inside. This evening I took her to her favorite pet store and got her some treats. Then we went on a couple mile hike along the river at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville. Here are pictures of Nari before and after the hike - notice how much longer her tongue looks after the hike! 

Here are pictures of her randomly sitting during the hike, again you can see her tongue get longer as we walk farther:

And here she is walking at the speed of light (or maybe I just don't know how to use my camera...);

Here she is on the river walk:

A week of winning, mimosas, agility and turtle saving!

I came home from work on Thursday and there was a package sitting on our porch. Turns out we won one of the raffle baskets from the AKKAOA specialty a few weeks ago!! We didn't make it to the Specialty since it was all the way over in CA, but I still bought some tickets to support the club. I didn't even really get to see everything that was in the basket because the girls just grabbed their favorite items and ran through the house with them - they loved everything! I think there were some Yummy Chummies (which the girls LOVE), a raw hide bone, a stuffed raccoon, a chocolate Nylabone, and a pet blanket - all in a tin which I think will be the perfect size to keep their collection of Nylabones in. Here are some pictures of the girls enjoying their prizes.

Nari and Alpha fighting over the raccoon:

Alpha wins the battle and poses with her prize:

In the chocolate Nylabone battle, Alpha is victorious (after stealing it from Starbuck) and Nari lays in her bed pretending like she doesn't care:

Finally, Alpha is too tired to chew: 

On Sunday we had our mimosa agility practice. Here are Starbuck and Nari anxious to get to practice (don't worry, they are wearing seat belts):

Luckily it was only in the mid 70's this morning so they all took advantage of the cool weather and ran around the field like crazy. Starbuck was doing much better with her focus and I think the weather helped her out a lot. And of course the mimosas were excellent. Here are some tired, happy dogs on the way home:

We were only a couple of blocks away from our house and we saw a turtle trying to cross the road. Aaron stopped and carried it across the street - so many turtles get hit by cars in our neighborhood. Hopefully that guy stays out of the road. When we finally made it back to the house, the girls went to my office and all passed out: