Look at that amazing dog and my simply brilliant skeleton pants!!
This has all been quite a crazy couple of years for me - Nari getting so sick she can't even walk to making a recovery and running agility faster than ever!! She's like a puppy now - screaming at me, demanding walks even after she had spent an hour at the agility field. There's an amazing artist that lives a few hours from me and she created this special harness tag for Nari - I thought a winged-unicorn was appropriate for Nari because she's pretty much the most amazing being ever she might as well be a winged-unicorn :)
Nari's kick-ass agility harness tag
I was so crazy excited that not only was Nari able to get back to agility back in April of this year but she even qualified for Nationals AND earned byes into the semifinals for both Grand Prix and Steeplechase!! And that little amazing girl almost made the finals - she was fast and speedy but a teeter fault kept us out of Grand Prix and a pause to scratch burs stuck on her ear kept us out of Steeplechase but she tried her hardest and was simply amazing!
I finally put together a highlight video of her runs - enjoy!
I have some exciting ideas on what we can do in 2016 - so we will see what next year brings us :)
Battlestar had a big (and busy) weekend! Which meant that I had a very busy weekend...
First up Saturday morning was family pictures at the studio for our annual Christmas cards. The always amazing Julie Poole had her yearly benefit for the local animal shelter so we headed over to her studio around 9 am (40 min drive) with the crew. After about 45 minutes of craziness - Battlestar kept trying to get everyone to chase her so we put a show lead on to get her to finally stay still - pictures were done.
We all headed home, I grabbed lunch and then packed up Starbuck, Nari and Battlestar again and drove to the local agility trial (30 min drive) and the girls got massages. I heard that they were doing CGC tests at the show so I signed Battlestar up and she passed her CGC test!! I drove 30 mins back home - proudly told my husband that Battlestar passed her CGC test which her promptly started laughing at as she ran around the house trying to be a jerk and herd everyone while barking ever so shrilly and loudly.... :)
Starbuck demonstrating the tough life of a canine athlete!!
Nari thinks that massages aren't all that bad - as long as she can occasionally yell and kick the masseuse :)
Battlestar looking awfully cute while watching her sister get a massage
Then - packed up the car yet again (this time with all 4 girls) and drove 3 hours to Nashville that evening for a Sunday agility trial. The girls of course had lots of hotel time fun. Sunday I ran all 4 girls in a small trial and they all had a blast!! Battlestar, Alpha and Starbuck all had 3 runs and Nari only had 2 so she was throwing a bloody fit in the car and practically trying to throw herself out of the car whenever I opened the crate door - then screaming when it was her turn to run :) I missed that so much while she was sick - it's so good to have her back :)
The big news of the weekend is that Battlestar is getting better at trials!!! This one was really small with not so many distractions so she didn't freak out on course :) I think she had a great time - she started blowing her startline stays due to excitement and not fear so that is very very good! Hopefully someday we will both get our act together and be able to run at bigger venues.
I feel like that song is very appropriate for us :) I have endured many 'Battle wounds' and even some 'Battle scars' with this girl - she's taught me a lot and kind of makes me want to punch anyone who says that training shelties is easy... but damn she's an awesome dog and hella fast! :)
We're getting the house ready for Christmas! I pulled out the trees last night and threw on some ornaments. Battlestar and I picked up a cute little Santa hat that's just her size. Battle is crazy happy dog - always willing to do whatever I'm doing even if it involves her posing next to Santa Rex and wearing a hat :)
The Klee Kai on the other hand detest wearing any clothing at all. Here is Starbuck showing how depressing Christmas can be with a hat!
Feels like Christmas now that Santa T-Rex has made his appearance
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!! The girls loved their Thanksgiving. I took them to the local agility field and they each got some one on one time with me and then roamed the several acre field in a cute little pack :) They really enjoy their field time - Battle loves to run around and bark her fool head off and the Klee Kai try to find the nastiest dead/decaying thing and roll around in it....
My husband and I had steak this year and the girls had turkey - everyone was quite happy with the Thanksgiving goodies.
I was slacking off on the decorating but did manage to put together our Christmas T-Rex - trees and lights will hopefully go up later this week.
Don't you dare get in the way of Nari and her walkies...
Meanwhile... we've been dealing with a ton of rain the past couple of days which means that Nari is SUPER PISSED off that she doesn't get her daily walkies.... I've been getting this death stare accompanied by constant squeaking. Then she'll take a break to go beat up our walking shoes while screaming... seriously pissed of Nar!! The look above was after she had been on a 1+ hour hike, agility at the field then an hour long chase/play session with the pack at the field but she was denied her even walk because I am apparently the meanest person on the planet :)
I didn't take many pictures form the 2015 Cynosport World Games this year (USDAA's national agility competition) but here are a few from the event.
Oh, Starbuck - always looking like a silly goof during pictures. I absolutely love that about her!
I designed team shirts for Starbuck's team, 'Turbo Boost for Starbuck's Journey', this year. Her teammates where Journey and Boost. I love the way they turned out! Sadly, we did not get team pictures - just too crazy.
Front of the shirt - left side.
This is the design on the back of the shirts. I drew the picture and found someone to print them.
The happy sisters on one of our many walks around the site.
