Happy birthday to a very special little dog!

Today my little Inara is 4 years old! I can't believe it - seems like just yesterday she was just a tiny, crazy puppy! Now she's still crazy, but just a little bit older :) Time sure does seem to go by so fast. 

This morning we went on a very long walk on the greenway - one of her favorite things to do. Tomorrow Nari gets a very special day of hanging out with me. We'll probably do some agility, check out the doggie bakery and then take her out in Knoxville to hit up some of the dog friendly stores. Her favorite happens to be Mast General Store because they have the tastiest homemade peanut butter dog cookie sandwiches. They think she so cute that they just let her eat as many as she wants :) 

Starbuck meets her daddy!

Starbuck was in for a very special surprise this weekend! She was super excited when she found out she got to go on a solo trip to the park with just me and Aaron. And then she was even more excited when she got to meet a bunch of people AND HER DADDY!! 

Last time she saw her daddy, Loki, was when she was just a tiny pup. I don't know if they remembered each other at all but they sure had a lot of fun together. 

Just look at the cute puppy smiles - she definitely gets her smile from her dad. They have a very similar temperament - both really outgoing and friendly. They also like to bark and jump towards dogs that get near them - crazy pups!

After they hung out in the park together we all went out for lunch together - what a fun day! I think that
Alpha and Nari were a little jealous that they didn't get a chance to meet their daddy (all girls have the same sire).

ADCH Inara!!

Okay, I know I've posted before about Nari (or as she's known in agility, Inara) being the first AKK to earn an Agility Dog Champion title in USDAA but I just had to post this picture:

Isn't it awesome? Lisa M. made it for me. If you want her to make one for your dog, just send me a message and I can send you her contact information.

Happy 4th of July!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th of July holiday yesterday. I procrastinated so much that I finally went out to get patriotic bandanas ON the 4th! However, the stores didn't have any 4th of July bandanas so I got the girls these:

And Nari was getting tired of the serious lack of treats! 

Hope everyone had a great time! What did your four-legged family members do for the holiday? 

The girls love custard!

So... how is everyone enjoying summer? While we were on a road trip a couple of weeks ago we happened to come across a Culver's. The girls thought my kids meal was quite awesome:

And then we got custard!
Starbuck was trying to use all her cuteness to get some custard:

Custard?

Mmmmmmmm....

CUSTARD!!!

Their cuteness always works :) 

Cool patriotic pup contest by Pleasant Pup!

Hi everyone! 


It feels like it's been FOREVER since I've posted anything. Lot has been going on around here. I can't remember if I told you guys but Starbuck won a contest a couple of months ago! It's crazy, I never win anything but I think Starbuck has probably won about 3 contests so far. Most recently she won a contest put on by Pleasant Pup (check out her stuff here: http://www.pleasantpup.artsydog.com/ and here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Dobergrrl). Isn't her stuff awesome? She even makes bracelets to match your dog's collar (and I'm a total sucker for that kind of stuff!). 


AND Pleasant Pup is running another contest right now! Have any patriot pup pictures? Of course you do - so send them to Tricia to enter for your chance to win a gift certificate to get your very own awesome stuff. Here's how to enter (See Pleasant Pup's facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/PleasantPup.):


"In case you haven't heard, Pleasant Pup is having a patriotic dog contest! Send us your photo to dobermonkey07 (at) yahoo (dot) com and I will post them to our contest album! There will be a prize for first, second and third!"


So just what did Starbuck win in the last Pleasant Pup contest with this adorable picture?

She won her very own custom martingale collar for agility! And here are some pictures of it:

Isn't it awesome?! It has Starbuck's named carved in it AND a skull! 

Yeah, she looks pretty awesome in it. 

Not only is this martingale the most excellent martingale ever, but it is super lucky! On the first trial weekend that Starbuck had it she finally got that last Advanced Standard leg - we have been trying to get that FOREVER! And the finished 3 titles, qualified in all three tournaments and got fully qualified for Cynosports this year - never thought that would happen. 

In fact, we loved the martingale so much that we bought a very special collar for our little Alpha:

Yep, that's right it's bright red with SPIKES on it! She has those spikes to protect her if another dog ever tries to bite her in the neck again - two boxers attacked her on a walk and one was about to bite her little neck before my husband got her out of there... 

Hopefully we never have another encounter with a dog attack again. 

And just in case you are wondering - those symbols carved on the collar are her name, Alpha Prime! 

Attitude!

Well, looks like I missed the dog agility blog action day yesterday. So here's my belated post :)


Love. That's what I walk into the ring with. Ace taught me that and I think that is one of the most valuable things he has taught me - to always walk into the ring with nothing but love. 

Every single run we have with our dogs is a gift - we never know when our last run will be so just enjoy every second of it. You never see dogs out in the wild running through agility courses - dogs do agility because they love us and enjoy spending that moment with us. Every great run (Q or NQ) is a gift from your dog. 

I remember when Nari got hurt last year at the Chicago Regionals. She started going really slow - I thought it was because she didn't want to run with me anymore but it turns out it was because she was injured. After a couple of adjustments from a couple of chiros and some laser treatments they said I could run her the next day. I pulled her from pretty much every run except for the Grand Prix Finals because we had worked so hard to get there. About halfway through the run she popped out of the weaves - and that was the end of our chance for a bye into the Semis at Cynosports. I knew why she popped out - she was still sore from getting injured the day before. But she ran the rest of the course with a smile on her face. That is the only time I have ever been so happy that I actually cried. It was is amazing how much Nari loves me despite all of my imperfections and faults - Nari loves me and the game so much that she wanted to run with me that day even though she was still sore. 

I recently got an email from a friend and it meant the world to me. I'm just going to share a small portion of it:
"I loved watching you enjoy your dogs, and so despite the fact that I tend to be shy at first I wanted to know you. There are not as many people in our sport as I would like who "get" the true joy of our dogs and the sport. You obviously do."


I struggled for a quite a while to finally understand what agility was all about, but I am just so glad that others see that I am becoming the handler that my dogs deserve. 


I may not be a great handler, but I hope I am the best handler I can be for my dogs when we're out there on the course. So please everyone, don't worry about those Qs and those titles - if you have love they will come.  Love is what this game is all about!