You're taking pictures of a lovely dog and you end up with melting eyeballs (it is pretty hot here)...
Or you get a head that spins faster than a poltergeist...
And then there are those photos where there really doesn't seem to be a logical explanation other than a straw hat and pipe might be in order...
Poor Blue...hope she doesn't get mad and decide to seek revenge. :) You can see some not-so-oops images over at my other blog, which also includes some pictures of Mick Chicken, the super adorable Great Dane/Lab puppy.
Ona different note, we would like to thank our good friends over at Life With Dogs for including us in their "Recommended Dog Blog" list which is featured on blogs.com. And once again, the spotties and I are truly honored! Although Indy is starting to think Nigel might have a little crush on her. Or is it Peyton? :)
We got our pictures from Perry! These were taken by Gary Depp of "In Motion Photos" - they really got some really nice shots of my spotty boy and if I hadn't gone a little (err, a LOT) picture-happy at DACOF the weekend before, I would have ordered more.
Love this weaving shot!
Such a cute little jumper...
And finally, a rare photo of me! For anyone who trials, you will likely agree that often the pictures that include us handlers are comical, at best. In my case, I generally look lost, cross-eyed, and a maybe even a little drunk-ish. :) So it was nice to see a picture where I only look slightly disturbed. Not exactly sure what I'm saying here, but since it's the first jump and I'm already behind, I'm sure you can guess what I'm *thinking*...
It seems like every few months the topic of competition comes up on some of the agility lists that I follow and honestly, it's a topic I find myself thinking about quite often.
I would consider myself a mildly competitive person...I grew up showing horses, and as competitive as dog sports can be, I don't think they're any match to what I've seen in the horse show world! Competition there could be very, very ugly - especially when you were competing against friends.
Oddly enough, I see competition in agility quite differently. I don't look at my friends as competition and honestly, I don't think I look at any one else as competition either. I don't know why...I guess in my mind we're really only competing against the course. Sure, placements are nice, but at this point it's not something that I even really think about. I view agility as a team sport...and I can guarantee that my teammates are not thinking about "beating" another dog on course. :)
I'm always amazed when I hear stories of agility friendships that have turned sour over competition and it makes me sad. I love watching and cheering on my friends, and would like to think those feelings are mutual. I sincerely want them to be successful and for that matter, I hope that anyone who works hard and are nice to their dogs can enjoy success in this sport. Now if you are mean to your dog, or a nasty person in general, that doesn't mean I won't snicker if you happen to say, fall on your face while running a course. :)
Am I saying that I never have feelings of jealousy? No way! I often find myself thinking I wish I could be as good of a handler as ___, or I would love to be as consistent as ___, and I wish our table was as good as ___. :) I think those feelings are normal! But at the end of the day, I just want us to be as good of a team as we can possibly be at any point of our training.
Blah, blah, blah...I'm rambling now. :) I'm not sure that there's a point to this post other than the fact that ever since Peyton has started doing pretty well, I have seen a few glimmers of the not-so-nice side of competition. I've been so fortunate to have some wonderfully supportive friends who have encouraged me to keep trying even when it didn't look like we were ever going to make any progress. I just hope that some of them will continue to be supportive no matter how good - or how ugly - our runs might be.
I finally got around to uploading our last run from Perry. I don't think it's as bad as it felt at the time, but I'm pretty sure one of us must have been 1/2 asleep during this run...gee, who could that be?
Tonight's special edition post is especially for Jenn, who apparently does not know what an elephant ear is. *Gasp* *Shock* *Horror* - Jenn, say it ain't so!
This, my friend, is an elephant ear...
A big ol' plate full of deep fried doughy goodness smeared with butter and then covered in cinnamon and sugar - guaranteed to immediately add a few pounds, but oh so yummy!
And here I've always though that elephant ears were about as American as apple pie! Every summer they were at the very top of my "must have" list at the county and state fair. We even have them at the county fairs down here, but I have to say that they aren't nearly as good as the ones back in Indiana. Yes, I am very particular about my elephant ears. :)
Seriously Jenn, no elephant ears in Massachusetts? Really??
It looks like I'll be heading to Indianapolis the weekend of August 8th! I'm planning on offering a limited number of photo sessions while I'm in town, so if you are interested, please let me know as soon as possible so I can add you to my schedule. (Kim @ simplyspottedphoto.com)
This will be my second trip to Indy this year, and I'm looking forward to some better weather than my last few trips. With my luck it will be HOT, but at least there shouldn't be any snow!
So why August? Well, I have to admit that I am planning this trip around the Indiana State Fair...it's probably one of the things I miss most about Indiana - in addition to my friends, of course! :) Ah, I can almost taste the elephant ears, and corn on the cob, and lemon shake-ups...yum!
Poor Peyton is going to be so sad when he finds out he has to stay home...he thinks a trip to Indy sounds like fun!
Peyton's very best friend Riley is going to be famous! He's on the cover of summer 2009 issue of The GulfCoast DOG magazine which is now available online. Click here to view the latest issue, which also features a little surprise appearance by me and Indy. :)
I can't wait to see the magazine when it comes out in print...hopefully Peyton doesn't decide to eat my copy!
As much as I enjoy the Q's and new titles that come along with trialing, they really don't compare to some of the other "everyday" successes that we've experienced in recent months. For those that don't know, Peyton can be extremely reactive. And by reactive, I mean varying degrees of barking, screaming, lunging, etc. to dogs, people, kids, and anything else that worries him. I'm pretty certain it's a fear issue, and while I've worked very hard with him over the past few years, it still requires a lot of management.
For quite some time I was convinced that we would never make it to an agility trial - not because of zoomies or any other training issue, but because I didn't think he would be able to cope in such a high-energy, stressful environment with *lots* of other dogs, strangers, kids etc. running around. And while I think we've still got a ways to go with regard to his overall comfort level at trials, he's made tremendous progress.
Last week in Perry we only had a few cases of reactivity and each time it was after he saw one woman - not sure what it was about this person, but there was something about her that made Peyton very upset. At one point he was in his crate (which was completely closed) and he started screaming - I looked around and sure enough, there she was at a nearby photography booth. I know he couldn't see her so I'm not sure what exactly was setting him off - her voice? Her smell? Aside from those few instances, he was really pretty good. We even had a little girl hanging out in the section right in front of us all weekend - I don't think he barked at her once.
I think my proudest moment all weekend was when we were in the elevator at the hotel and when the doors opened to the lobby and we were greeted by 7-8 squealing kids! Not too long ago this would have given Peyton a heart attack for sure, but we managed to walk right out and past all of the kids with just the smallest little "woof". I almost cried. :)
So while I'm sure it sounds like I get overly excited about every single run, it's only because I never thought we would get here. And since I've already been reminded by several that Excellent will not be easy, I can only respond by saying that I really don't care. As long as Peyton is having fun and playing the game *with* me, we'll continue to celebrate each and every run - no matter how ugly some might be. :)
Here are a few shots of my spotty boy who now thinks that hotels are fun *and* for sleeping (with a big hooray from me for the sleeping part!)...
I still can't believe it, but Peyton got his Open Standard title yesterday with another clean run and 1st place! I know he has a lot of potential, but I never ever in a million years thought we could go from Novice to Excellent Standard in just 7 runs. We had just one little bobble on this run which of course, was my fault - I need to remember to keep moving instead of stopping to watch the pretty spotty dog. :)
We were the second dog to run at 8:30 in the morning - we should have probably called it a day and headed home, but noooo...I decided to stay for Novice JWW which didn't end up starting until 5:30 pm! I made the mistake of thinking that Peyton would be a little tired and we might have a chance of getting our Novice title, but he proved me wrong and we had probably our craziest run of the weekend with one very wild spotty boy and several off-courses. :)
So overall, we went 4/4 in Standard and 0/4 in JWW this weekend. No complaints from me! It was a really fun trial, but I am so glad to be home - it will be nice to take some time off to recover and catch up on my growing to-do list!
Peyton & I want to give all of our friends a big thank you for the kind words and encouragement! :)
Three days down, one to go! We had a great day today - started out with Novice Jumpers this morning and had a really nice run, but one knocked bar. I also managed to step on poor Peyton when I pulled him off the jump after the weaves - ouch!
Open standard was next and Peyton did awesome! He was clean and took 1st place - our 2nd leg in Open! I think I over-managed a few spots, but I wanted to make sure that he held his contacts - they were still a little messy, but a big improvement over yesterday. And no table faults today!
Poor spotty boy is exhausted! This is really a tough environment for him, but he's trying so hard and is being such a good boy. I'm looking forward to our runs tomorrow, but it will also be nice to head back home. :)
We're halfway through our 4 day Perry trial and so far it's going pretty well! Yesterday we started with Novice JWW and despite two knocked bars, Peyton was not nearly as wild as I expected he would be. His second run was Novice Standard and he qualified with 2nd place and got the third leg needed for his title - yay Peyton! The table continues to be our trouble spot (he had two refusals called), but the rest of his run was great.
Unfortunately, we had some cameraman challenges and only got the first part of his jumpers run on tape...
Today we (again) started with Novice JWW and Peyton was a *wild* spotty. He broke his start line stay and it just kind of went downhill from there. :) Actually it wasn't that bad, but I think I could have done a much better job of handling what could have been a pretty nice course.
Next up was Standard and we managed to get our first leg in open and 2nd place! We had just one refusal at the table; otherwise it was a really fun run. Maybe a little *too* much fun as we had another broken startline and a dogwalk that wasn't supposed to include a running contact. :) Really though that was my fault as I pushed him a little too much for a trial (I was thinking about the table, again).
So that's our update so far! We're having a good time - oh, and there's also a few other Dals running so it's been fun to see some other spotties in action! Tomorrow we start with Novice JWW again - ugh, I would much prefer to start with standard, but maybe tomorrow will be our day for jumpers. :)
In addition to being a part of our awesome winning team, I'm also super excited to report that Peyton received HIT (high in trial) for the 24" novice group! He ended up finishing 2nd in round 1, 4th in round 2, 1st in round 3, 8th in round 4 and 1st in round 5. To say that I'm insanely proud of my spotty boy is an understatement!
Here's a little recap with videos:
Round 1: standard - a great start to our weekend! One off-course at the weaves, but we made up for it with a great time, finishing second.
Round 2 jumpers: one knocked bar (my fault, I'm sure), but I think we finished with the fastest time out of all the novice dogs!
Round 3 FAST: A really nice run to finish day one. I gave him a really bad approach to the teeter (and a-frame) but we worked it out and finished with 62 points for first place.
Round 4 standard: We got off to a rough start with an off-course to the tunnel - I pretty much sent him there since I got behind after he broke his stay. We also had two refusals called at the table. In my attempt to keep him from jumping off the table, I micromanaged the approach a little too much. I think it might have worked if I had kept moving. Otherwise, a pretty nice run.
Round 5 JWW: The perfect way to end our DACOF weekend! The 5 (offset) jump ending had me more than a little worried, but he just smoked this run! Despite a few wide turns and my late front cross at the tunnel, this was a 19 second run! The only other novice dog under 20 seconds had 4 dropped bars. We finished in first place and over 16 seconds under SCT.
Yay Peyton! Needless to say, I'm on cloud 9...I never dreamed that he would have handled this kind of environment as well as he did. He was fast and focused and most important I'm pretty certain that he was having a BLAST - he was even barking during his runs! His contacts were awesome and he did a pretty good job with his start line stays too - AND I think I just might be starting to get an idea of how to handle him! :)
We had the best time this weekend - thanks again to my awesome team and all of our friends for sending their support and good wishes! Now we just have 2 days to recover before we head to Perry for the 4 day AKC trial - yikes! :)
I am so excited to announce that our team, the SOTC Speedsters, WON the 2009 DACOF event - out of 37 teams! This is a HUGE accomplishment for our club, as I don't think we've ever made it in the top ten before, let alone come in first place - AND we won by 107 points, with some really tough competition.
Peyton had an AWESOME weekend, but I first have to do a little bragging on my teammates who totally rocked. We had so much fun and I'm so proud to be a part of such a great group!
Here's a picture of our winning team, minus a few that had to leave early. Just in case you're wondering, I'm the one covered in dirt with the spotty dog. :)
Here are a few more Indy pics from our beach trip last weekend!
Peyton and I leave for our big DACOF weekend tomorrow morning! I feel a little out of practice - because of the rain we haven't done much for the last two weeks. Thankfully we'll have a couple practice runs tomorrow so I'm hoping that will help burn a little of the energy out of my wild spotty. Fingers and paws crossed for a fun weekend! Hopefully we won't embarrass ourselves too much. :)
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