And this is why I love agility!

Look at those happy smiles! I took this picture right after our agility lesson today. Ace gave another awesome lesson and the girls gave him lots of butt wiggles and got their tummies rubbed. The girls and I had a blast.



I once heard someone say that they were only interested in agility for the social aspects. They didn't care if their dog enjoyed it or not, they just went to hang out with people. I just don't understand that.

My dogs amaze me - they put up with all of my craziness and love me no matter what happens. The least I can do is spend a few hours a week spending time with them doing something they love. Maybe I'm weird, but at most trials I'd rather be hanging out with my dogs than socializing. I just feel like I owe it to my dogs because they go out there and run their little hearts out and put up with all of my clumsiness and confusion. Now, I do have some amazingly awesome agility friends that I hang out with at the trial - I just tend to spend more time with my dogs to make sure they get proper warm ups, cool downs, etc.

So if you ever see me at a trial and ask me to join you for dinner, I'm very sorry but I will politely decline. It's not because I don't like people, it's just that after all the hard work my dogs do for me I just like to give them special attention at the end of the day.

Just another winter weekend in the 70's?!?!

It got up to 70 on Sunday and it was gorgeous outside!! I can't believe that it's still technically Winter! 

I started my Saturday by getting up at 4:30 am and driving to Chattanooga for another flyball tournament with Starbuck! The little Bucky Baby had so much fun and got her first title in U-Fli - Top Flight! Plus I also entered her in singles and she is now *officially* the fastest Alaskan Klee Kai in flyball with a speed of 5.567 s (with a start time of 0.119 s, so technically her run was ~ 5.4 s). Okay, so it wasn't too difficult for her considering that she's the only AKK in flyball :) But still, that is a pretty speedy time for a height dog, especially since Starbuck is pretty slow heading to the box and speeds up when she runs back to me. So if I can figure out how to get her to drive to the box faster so can speed up that time even more.

Anyway, Starbuck's just in it because she gets to run around like crazy, pig out on treats and get a ton of petting for people. And I'm just in it to see that happy Buck Buck smiles :) 

We drove back that evening so we could chill at home on Sunday. Then on Sunday evening they all got to run around the agility field to get all muddy and dig lots of mud holes. And they were quite happy! 

Before I go, I just wanted to thank all y'all for reading my blog and commenting. I love reading your comments and I'll always respond to them - just sometimes it might take me a couple of days to get back to you. And I always enjoy reading all your great blogs! 

Video Friday!

Here's a little video I made of the girls working out:





Starbuck used to be a little bit overweight so I just decided to start all of the girls on a workout routine. We don't do these exercises everyday. Typically I'll use just one piece of equipment a day and also add in some tricks that work on balance, rear end awareness and work their brains. Additionally, they hike 5 miles a day, a little jogging (I'm still slowly easing back into running since recovering from injuries) and once a week go on an inclined treadmill. 


We got most of the gear from FitPAWS. The girls love their FitPAWS gear so much - they practically fight over who gets to workout first! And the FitPAWS booth at Cynosports was definitely one of Nari's favorite places to go. 

Tell Me Thursday 2012 #9

And it's time for Tell Me Thursday brought to you by Laura over at Crooks and Crazies! 






From Laura:
"For a slight change of pace, this Thursday is a "Tell Me Thursday - Random Edition" sort of post. This is your permission to break out whatever random stuff you want to tell this week.


Also known as... I've been so crazy busy this week I almost forgot again. 


So rather than Q&A this week I'd like to know whatever random tidbits you might have on your mind today." 


So, here I go: 


- I'm a total chicken. I'm afraid to teach my dogs new things because I'm afraid that I'm a crappy teacher and that I will demotivate them. I'm afraid of making mistakes. That has affected their performance in agility. 
- I probably drive my trainer crazy because of this. He is very nice and always patient with me, I have no idea how he does it. But we had a breakthrough yesterday so things will be better now! 
- I started doing free-shaping trick work because of the above. Keep the dogs happy, teaching them how to learn and to fail and think through things. They are loving the challenges. 
- I finally decided it was time to focus more on getting the dogs more toy motivated (and stop avoiding it like I had been). They all do tug and play with toys, but when food comes out they are all about the food and completely ignore the toys. So I've started free-shaping that and making my own tugs with food in it, so far it's going pretty well.
- Silver skulls candles that 'bleed' are quite amazing. 

A Christmas present from a friend, pretty much the most amazing candle ever.

Bleeding out of the eye sockets!!

- I really want turtle brownies right now. 
- Have you ever had tried those Ghiradelli turtle brownie mixes? They are AMAZING and I want one right now. 
- Starbuck has this amazing ability to pick up contractors at Lowe's. Now that she has some experience  picking up contractors that build retaining walls... I wonder where I can take her to pick up a guy who wants to pay for the retaining wall that is needed to level my yard? 

Seriously - this girl has made skills at picking up anyone. Heck, some woman

 even let Starbuck lick her cleavage in public once! 

- Don't google 'cleavage' at work to see if you spelled it correctly. 
- Whoever came up with purple zebra striped tights is amazing. 

Well, that's all I can think of right now - hope all y'all have a great weekend! 

Starbuck's first flyball tournament

I'll make this post quick - here's a video from Starbuck's very first flyball tournament:





I was so proud of her. Her very favorite thing to do it chase other dogs so she did a great job of controlling herself. During the last race of the weekend she did loose her mind and went into the other lane twice to run with the GSD but I once I called her she came right back to me. 


Okay - before I go I just wanted to apologize for having the two word verification thingy enabled (thanks to Mamarazzi for letting me know). I had no idea I had set it - but no worries, that sucker is gone now! Thanks for putting up with it! 

I confess... to a bunch of random stuff

This is a fun one that I stumbled upon (saw Laura's link to it) so I thought I'd play along.




I confess... 


Sometimes I looked up things for my job on Wikipedia. 

Today I went on YouTube for job related stuff. Really, I did. And I felt kind of guilty about it.  FYI - videos on soldering are quite dull - you people need to add some awesome music or graphics or hot guys without shirts soldering (maybe that would be some kind of safety violation...).


I really miss having my office next to an old, rusty reactor. 

I confess... 


The only reason we purchased our treadmill was for the dogs. We told ourselves that we were buying the treadmill so that we could get in better shape, but really it was for the dogs. And the dogs have definitely logged in more miles than me on that thing.


That my 3 year old dog has had more massages and chiro adjustments that I have.

And every time I think about schedule a massage for myself I never do it because I just can't justify a $50 massage for myself - but for my dog I never question it.


I told that to my vet on Wednesday and she had some vet students come in to learn more about chiro and didn't charge for the session (because she used it to teach the vet students) and told me to use the money to get a massage for myself.


I confess... 


That my dogs eat way healthier than me. They think that broccoli stumps are a treat - do you know how good I would look if I went crazy over broccoli stumps?

That Nari never earned her Advanced Snooker title. Didn't figure that out until it was too late to go back and finish the title.


I confess... 


That sometimes I wish I could clicker train my friends poorly behaved children. Not with a real clicker, but just give them a treat when they are doing something good and ignore them when they are being little brats (like squirting my with a squirt gun while I'm trying to eat). 


I confess... 


That I have super awesomely amazing ninja skills.

Okay, not really. But wouldn't that be awesome if I did? 

Tell Me Thursday 2012 #8

After a break last week, Tell Me Thursday is back! Brought to you by Laura over at Crooks and Crazies.





Things have been crazy around here lately. Still recovering from my stupid injury but finally able to run. Oh yeah, and Starbuck raced in her first flyball tournament! And Nari was pissed that I was cheating on her by not letting her come along for the trip.


1. What blogging tip would you give other dog-bloggers?
It's a simple one - post some pictures of your dogs. I love pictures, especially ones of all those awesome doggies out there!

2. If you were going to be stranded on a deserted island and could take five things with you (aside from the clothes on your back), what would they be?
Let's see... besides my dogs...
The husband - I'm pretty much useless.. 
A bow and some arrows - so the husband could catch food
A knife - so the husband could cut up the food
Flint - so my husband could teach me how to start fires to cook the food with
A pan - to cook with 
As you can tell, I'm pretty much useless when it comes to surviving!! 

3. How much pain are you willing to endure in the name of physical appearance? Do you have painful things done to enhance beauty?
I refuse to wear painful shoes (B.O.C. by Born makes some adorable sandals so that's what I'm stuck with wearing) but I do work out pretty hard at the gym. In fact, Gambit was kicking my ass yesterday. For some reason it was Marvel vs DC comics at the gym yesterday and my trainer was dressed as Gambit. My favorite costume was the guy who wore a tight Superman costume that had built in fabric boots. Only he was too tall for the costume so the 'boots' hit him mid calf. Other than getting my butt kicked at the gym, I'm a total wimp when it comes to pain for beauty.


4. Speed limits... how fast do you drive? Do you drive Miss Daisy? Do you do the Indy 500 to work?
I try to keep it at no more that 8ish over the speed limit. Especially try to watch the speeding outside of TN. TN cops are constantly tailgating me even when I am going 10+ over but once I get out of TN, that's when I get caught! 


5. What trial (that you go to) is your favorite, and why?
My favorite so far has been any trial put on by Carolina Piedmont Agility. Those guys definitely know how to throw a party! They have awesome food for their workers and are constantly giving out cash in their workers raffle - Starbuck even won $15 once. For the bar setters they typically get a local youth group to send volunteers and then give the group $1,000!! How cool is that! Makes me wonder what the other clubs are doing with their profits.  They also have awesome equipment (which they are constantly updating) and are super friendly. I only travel for USDAA, but since CPA trials are so great they may even convince me one day to travel for AKC... 


And one time I even stayed late to work the last class of the weekend. The guy who ran the trial was so nice that he mailed me a little thank you card and inside was a gift card to Starbucks!