House of Spots - See Spot Run. See Spot Jump.

Team Three Blondes

2011-10-09T21:29:00.003-04:00

Hmm, based on my blog posts, it would appear that I'm running a week behind on life these days. Sounds about right. :)

Peyton and I had our annual USDAA team event last weekend with our Golden friends. After last year's less than stellar performance, I had zero intentions of playing again this year, but Lisa convinced me that it would be a shame to let such cool team t-shirts go to waste. (They are fun shirts!)

Even though our weekend wasn't all that impressive on paper, we had some really great runs and finished the weekend with a team Q.

On a slightly entertaining note, we did manage to get called on 7 up-contacts in 7 runs. That's impressive, I think. :) Silly USDAA.

It's funny, but I think I was most proud of our snooker run, which was at the end of a *very* long day on Saturday. I was tired, Peyton was tired, and the sun was blinding, yet we managed to make it almost all the through the course even after he knocked a bar in the opening. Considering Peyton usually takes any obstacle in his path (and often those that are not), I was really happy that he stuck with me. Unfortunately we were whistled off in the closing when he missed the teeter up-contact, but otherwise it was a fun run. Snooker, fun? Huh. Did I just say that? :) On another positive note, in seven runs, we only had one (little) off-course jump - that's got to be a record! Love my spotty boy.

Our trial season is off to a great start!

QQ!

2011-09-23T21:30:00.004-04:00

We did it...our first double Q! Gee, maybe we should take 4 months off more often. :)

We had a great time at the SOTC trial last weekend - some really fun runs and good times with friends we haven't seen in awhile. Saturday was our QQ day - although I wasn't thrilled with our runs, I was super happy with Peyton. In standard, I *almost* missed my walkthrough and while I wasn't exactly sure where we were going, Peyton did a great job of sticking with me and we finished 1st in a large 24" class! Our JWW run had me a little worried (I don't think I've ever seen him so pokey), but again, we managed to be clean with a 2nd place.

I don't know if he was just tired, or hot, or maybe half asleep, but it was a really long day and I'm guessing that he was pretty much toast at that point. Even though he's in good shape, I think we tend to forget how physically and mentally stressful trials can be, especially after a relatively lazy summer. In any case, I would much rather have my happy speedy spotty, but I can't complain - he was trying so hard.

Even though we weren't "clean", I thought our runs on Sunday were much more fun! Peyton was awesome, even though I was suffering from a bad case of over-handling. I really need to do a better job of reading my dog and trusting him when he's actually running well and paying attention. :) Obnoxious handler! BUT - we did have a little bit of a start-line stay in JWW that I was pretty proud of. I think I'm going to start playing with them a bit more this season in trials.

SO SO proud of my best spotty dog! :)

Happy Derby Day!!

2011-09-10T23:06:00.003-04:00

Today is Derby's first birthday! Ahhh, how is it possible my little spotted monster is a year old?

We had a really great day - obedience class this morning followed by swimming and playing with our best Golden friends. We then headed to our favorite holistic pet store where Derby got to see more friends and give out lots of hugs and kisses. This afternoon he got a "special birthday bath" (how's that for a positive spin) and then we had a little party with the "grandparents" complete with puppy ice cream and new toys. Whew! I'm sure he could keep going (and going and going), but *I'm* exhausted.

Without getting all mushy, all I can say is that I just love this spotty boy. :) Even though he sometimes makes me want to pull my hair out, he makes me smile and laugh out loud every single day. I'm looking forward to many fun adventures together!

Speaking of, we've got a month or so break from our weekend dock diving adventures, but I though I'd share video from our last dock diving practice. He's really getting some air! Whodathunk I'd have myself a little diving spotty?

Happy Birthday, Derby pup! Here's to many, many more!

Return to Sender

2011-09-09T22:22:00.003-04:00

Sometimes captions aren't needed...

I'm certain that he loves the little monster pup (really), but I'm also certain that Peyton would also be perfectly happy as an only spotty. I'm constantly amazed at how tolerant he is, although he definitely makes his opinion known, complete with heavy sighs and an array of pouty faces. If only he could roll his eyes..

I've seen some big changes in Peyton over the past few months. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is, but he's been more relaxed in general and extra affectionate, even with people that he really doesn't know all that well. Who knows, maybe at age 5, he's finally figured out how to be (relatively) comfortable in his own skin. I don't dare use the word "mature" though. :)

I think he's had a good summer, even though we haven't done a whole lot - that's what breaks are for, I suppose. He's really enjoyed running around the field while I set up for my classes twice a week and occasionally, we've run a sequence or two (he's my guinea pig for a lot of the courses I set up), but other than that, not much in the way of training. Which is fine until it recently occurred to me that our first trial of the season is next weekend. Oops. I'm guessing that we'll be a tad (or perhaps a lot) bit rusty, but it sure will be fun to get back in the ring.

On an unrelated note, apparently the spotty boys have recently decided that they are master hunters. It all started a few weeks ago when I had Derby out just a little before midnight and he caught a frog (or toad?) and proceeded to run laps around the backyard with it hanging out of his mouth (while I'm shrieking dropitdropitdropitdropitnow). It was dark, but I *think* he finally did drop it considering I didn't see any evidence of frog parts afterwards. My apologies to any neighbors I woke up that night.

Not to be outdone by the little brat, Peyton caught a mouse last week. I didn't see it happen, but heard squeaking sounds and once I realized there wasn't a toy in his mouth, I asked him to drop it (which he did immediately - good boy!) and there was a poor little mouse. Unfortunately the mouse did not survive. Don't tell Peyton, but I'm not convinced that the mouse wasn't a little mentally or physically ill. Really, I don't think he's a natural hunter. :)

This new obsession with catching critters has continued and for some reason my backyard has turned into a frog farm this year. They are everywhere. Derby is thrilled. Me, not so much. I'm pretty sure that they are of the harmless variety, but 1.) I like frogs and really don't want to see them eaten, 2.) frog herding is not how I prefer to spend my evenings and 3.) while practical, all this "leave-it" frog training really isn't much fun. Stupid, suicidal frogs.

Splash Dogs!

2011-08-12T22:46:00.000-04:00

So the other night I decided to finally put together a big 'ol long post about the joys (read: frustrations) of adolescent spotty boy dogs and after re-reading it, I wasn't sure that all my random thoughts put together really made a whole lot of sense. That's what I get for attempting to catch up on blogging when I should be catching up on sleep. ;)

Long rambling story short: rather than fighting my (at the time) 9 month old puppy when his brain suddenly decided to move south (and I'm not referring to geography), I opted for a little attitude adjustment on my part and a new training plan that focused on fun with minimal frustrations.

Basically, when the going gets tough, the tough go dock diving. :)

Exhibit A: Fun! No stress! Stays! Happy spotty pup! Happy Kim!

I know I say this waaaay to much, but...isn't he adorable!? :)

Now this isn't to say that I've completely abandoned any other training; I'm just trying to train a little bit smarter not push for more than Derby is mentally able to give me in any given situation. He *is* a good puppy (I can say that now that we're mostly past the I-must-pee-on-everything stage) and I'm really happy with how he's progressing.

Before I start rambling again, we have some fun news - Derby competed in his first "Splash Dogs" event this past weekend! I use the term "competed" lightly because we really just entered to have a chance to play at a new location. I was confident that he would be fine with the environment (dogs, people, etc.) and was pretty sure he would jump, even if it took me going in first. ;)

He did fabulous! In our first "splash" (two jumps), his best jump was over 9 feet and in the finals (2 jumps), his best was 10'6". He originally placed 7th overall in the Junior finals (which I was thrilled with), but we found out the next day that they didn't have him in the correct division so he actually finished 1st in his splash and 1st in the Splash finals! Needless to say, he totally exceeded my expectations.

I definitely had my hands full with all of the new smells and distractions, but once he got up on the dock, his focus was great...and he held his stay! So proud of my little spotty boy. :)

Here's a little video - I didn't get all the jumps, but the second one is his jump in the finals.

I almost forgot - the cute little Dal girl he was flirting with at the end of the video is Emma. It was such a nice surprise to see her and her mom Amy at the event! They live on the East coast and this was their first dock diving competition too (they did great!). Hopefully we'll be seeing them a lot more in the future!

Jumping Spotty!

2011-07-09T22:37:00.004-04:00

Oh my poor neglected little spotty blog...one of these days I'll get back to regular updates. Hopefully. :) I'm sure y'all are getting real tired of swimming videos, but considering it is very HOT down here, and we haven't been doing a whole lot of training in general, that's about all I've got for the time being.

I'm a few weeks behind, but I thought I'd share Derby's first time diving off the "big kid" dock. At first, he really wasn't sure what he was supposed to do (and boy was he MAD), but after I jumped in, the lightbulb came on. I felt a little ridiculous, but hey - it worked. :)

Last week he didn't think twice about jumping right in - he did great! At this point, he's pretty much jumping from a standstill, but he seems to be getting the hang of it so I'm guessing we'll start adding a little bit of distance in soon. At the very end we introduced the "speed retrieve", which admittedly wasn't super speedy but considering he's not exactly a "water dog", I think he did pretty darn good. And oh my gosh, is he not ADORABLE!?

These videos make me smile. :) So much fun! I do have some other random training thoughts and updates to share, but they will have to wait until my brain is fully functional. In addition to having a crazy busy schedule lately, I've been really sick this past week and am just now starting to feel slightly human again. Soon!

Future Dock Diver?

2011-06-23T10:13:00.005-04:00

Derby was introduced to the "real" dock diving pool last weekend! He did great!

We took a little intro class where he learned to jump off the ramp for a toy. Actually "learned" is a stretch since he pretty much dragged me up the stairs and right into the water! This spotty boy most definitely does not lack confidence. :)

Nothing overly exciting at this point, but I thought I'd share a little video:

He really had a such a fun time and it was a little challenging to get him *out* of the pool. In the first clip you can hear me calling him and he was all LALALALALALA I can't heeeeeeaaaaaaar you. I'm sure he just had water in his ears. :) Naughty spotty.

Next time we'll try him off the actual dock. I'm excited! Now I just need to work on getting rid of my horrendous farmer's tan. And to think I live in Florida. :)

On a different note, GOOD LUCK to all of my friends competing in DACOF this weekend! I'm extremely bummed that we won't be there, but it just wasn't in the cards for this year. Happy fast, FUN, clean runs to you all!

Beach Spotty

2011-06-18T21:49:00.003-04:00

I think it's safe to say that Derby is *officially* a swimmin' spotty. A few weekends ago (yes, I'm a bad blogger) I took him to a little dog beach on the bay and he had a grand time!

While I can't say juggling a spotty, a toy and my iphone *in* the water was the smartest thing I've ever done, these events have to be documented, right?

Please forgive the mediocre, unedited iphone pictures. :)

Bar Hopping

2011-05-31T22:07:00.005-04:00

I thought bar hopping sounded like more fun than bar crashing. :)

We had a really fun agility weekend! Aside from one spazztastic, stressy FAST run on Sunday morning, Peyton was pretty darn super for the rest of the trial. We ended up with just one (insert word of choice here) bar in each of our jumpers runs, had a flakey spotty moment followed later by a flakey blonde moment in Sunday's standard run, and he went around the tire near the end of a tricky standard course on Monday. So another Not-Quite weekend, but fun, nonetheless.

I find it funny (in a not-so-funny way) that one bar down in an otherwise clean run is starting to become a bit of a trend. This coming from the dog that very rarely (unless I am *super* obnoxious in my handling) knocks bars. Considering he really is a talented jumper, I don't take the bar knocking too seriously, but it is a tad bit frustrating. I'd like to say it's the footing or the heat or the stress or the ?...but honestly I just think it's bad luck. I've heard that this game is humbling, but at this point, I think I'm quite humble enough, thank you very much. ;)

Here are two jumpers runs on video. In the first run, I don't think that the judge noticed the bar at first, and not that I ever want a "gift", but I found it amusing/annoying that someone felt the need to tell her even after 2 bar setters ran in to fix the bar *right* in front of her. Too funny. :)

I was really, really happy with these runs! I thought he was pretty sluggish on Sunday (it was super hot and humid), but that was still a 29 second run and would have good enough for first in a large 24" class. Good spotty!

I think we are now "officially" on trial break until September and now that it's getting pretty miserable outside, I'm not going to complain too much. Breaks are definitely good (physically and mentally) so hopefully we'll come back well rested and ready to rock-n-roll in the fall. :)

No More Thinking!

2011-05-27T20:20:00.004-04:00

Not too much exciting to report around here! Peyton has been in an especially good mood lately. We haven't been doing a ton of training, but he has been working so nice and happy. I was just thinking this week about how happy he's been and the fact that we haven't had any odd issues and sure enough that same evening, goofy Peyton returned. During class, Peyton decided to run his a-frame and when I stopped to fuss at him, I must have leaned down while he jumped up and I accidently (barely) poked him near his eye. Of course he screamed and proceed to trot around with his tail between his legs acting like he had been beaten. He recovered enough to have some decent runs, but he was definitely suspicious. See, that's what I get for thinking! Poor Peyton. We have a local trial tomorrow and Monday so we'll see if he remembers. If he remembers anything, hopefully it is to stop on his contacts. ;)

As for Derby, he seems to be 100% so we've pretty much resumed normal activity. Hopefully he stays sound...I don't think *I* can take any more extended crate rest! After such a long break, we're trying to get back in the swing of training and of course, during the break his hormones decided to kick into gear. Sooo...return of the brainless puppy. Fabulous. :)

On a good note, he loves his weekly swimming sessions at the Golden pool! While he probably won't make any canine Olympic swimming team, he is doing really good. I've included some recent video - it's probably not very exciting to anyone but me, but having a dog that enjoys playing in a pool is still a novelty to me. And of course, he is soooo stinkin' cute!

Peyton joined us during a night swimming party and while he had a grand time running around the pool, I would be very surprised if he ever decided to get in. Derby figured out pretty quickly that if he kept his toys in the water, they were safe. :)

Since I'm playing catch up, here are a few pictures from last week. I had to test my lights and the spotties are always good subjects.

Peyton is *the* biggest camera hog! He is always happy to play model and was not very happy that Derby was in *his* picture...

And just for fun... :)

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend!

Swimmin' Spotty!

2011-05-11T14:18:00.000-04:00

Derby pup is learning how to swim! I've been itching to get him in the water for months, but up until a few weeks ago, it's been just a little too chilly. I can't say much good about having an injured spotty pup, but it did get me motivated to get him swimming!

He's not exactly a natural, but has made quite a bit of progress! Here's a little video of his third swim lesson.

Gah, isn't he cute!? He's definitely figuring out how to use his legs and is doing a much better job of moving forward and not just splashing in place. :) He seems to really enjoy it...a few times he jumped in on his own and he loves just standing on the steps and splashing in the water. SO CUTE.

I hope to get him over to the "golden pool" at least once or twice a week. I think it will be great conditioning for him and who knows, maybe it will help with his (lack of) coordination. :)

Breaks, Birthdays and Bubblewrap

2011-05-05T10:11:00.005-04:00

Breaks. I don't think I'm doing very well with the whole "break" concept. Is there a support group for agility trial addicts? I ended up entering a local trial last weekend and then entered another one at the end of the month. I just can't help it...it's too tempting when we have trials so close to home! After that we're done for the summer. Maybe.

We had a *really* good day on Saturday...just one bar from a QQ. Peyton was running so well and was probably the most relaxed (for Peyton) he's been in a while. We qualified in JWW (!) and despite one ugly tunnel call-off (bad handler!), he still took 3rd in the class. Good spotty!

Sunday was a different story; our standard run was all over the place and JWW was just messy. I think I had 5 front crosses planned in the first 10 obstacles and each one I got just a little further behind and the last one I was so behind I sent him off course. Poor Peyton; I think he might have been a little mad at his handler after that run. :)

Overall, it was a fun weekend. Still looking for that magic recipe for keeping Peyton relaxed and happy, but even a bad (using that term loosely) day at an agility trial is better than most other good days. Love my wild, moody, complicated spotty boy!

Birthdays. Indy turned 7 last Sunday! She might not get a whole lot of blog time, but she *is* the only spotty who gets to go to Dairy Queen on her birthday. She thought that was pretty awesome. It's hard to believe she's 7...I swear she never changes. A (very amused) couple sitting next to us at DQ asked if it was her 1st birthday. :)

Bubblewrap. Apparently one should not joke about wrapping a puppy in bubblewrap unless they are 100% serious. Poor Derby. We're about to start week 4 of "taking it easy" after he (most likely) pulled a ligament in his left hind knee. Exactly *how* he did it is a mystery; he just started holding his leg up one evening.

Sigh. There is nothing fun about trying to keep a 7 1/2 month old Dalmatian puppy down. He was really good the first week, but since then he has made it perfectly CLEAR that he's over this "take it easy" nonsense.

On a positive note, he has been looking really good and I've not seen any obvious signs of limping since a few days after we saw the vet. Hopefully he's on the mend. I am, of course, a little nervous about his recovery. Did I mention he's not exactly graceful?

At least we got to take home pretty pictures. :)

Happy Birthday Peyton!

2011-04-24T23:29:00.004-04:00

In addition to celebrating Easter today, we also celebrated Peyton's birthday! He's FIVE. That might be a pretty mature age for most dogs, but Peyton would like to remind everyone that he's still a baby. A really big baby. :)

Training Pupdate

2011-04-13T22:07:00.002-04:00

**Warning** - Long random, rambling post about puppy training so (hopefully) I can remember what we were doing at 7 months. :)

Borrowed from a facebook update a few weeks ago....

LOST: 6 month old spotty puppy brain. Male. Has been spotted on occasion, but disappears before it can be captured. Was in very good condition, Will likely require time and an abundance of patience to locate. REWARD. :)

I was kidding (mostly), but lately Derby's motto does seem to be "brain today, gone tomorrow". A simple behavior request is often met with a blank stare (cue silence & birds chirping in the background). Patience, patience, patience, Kim.

To be fair, there have been lots of brilliant moments mixed in with the brainless ones. He really *is* a good puppy...I just think he's at that age where an extra dose (or three) of patience is required on my part. :)

I'm really pretty happy about where we are training-wise. I've been taking it slow with lots of foundation work, but I'm starting to get a little more structured with my goals and plans, as opposed to working on whatever I feel like working on at any given moment. I think that taking classes helps in that department a lot since I usually come away with good feedback and new ideas/things to work on. He finished his basic obedience class in February and received his S.T.A.R. puppy designation (as if I needed to donate another $10 to AKC). Then we took a performance puppy class taught by a friend (all foundation stuff), and we just started a new beginner/foundation agility class last weekend.

We've also dropped into a few intermediate obedience classes where he totally exceeded my expectations (thank you for showing up, puppy brain!). His heeling is coming along nicely and his stays and recalls were brilliant. Near the end of the last class, we worked a figure 8 pattern and I don't think his eyes left mine...we received several nice complements on that. Good spotty pup! I had forgotten how much I enjoy training obedience type work.

He really is a fun (and so far, relatively easy) dog to train. He's both food and toy motivated, which is great, and at this point I'm just trying to find a nice balance between the two. For the most part, I use food when I want him to think and tugging when I want enthusiasm. Because he tends to be a little too thoughtful and polite (IMO) at times, I'm using toys a little more than food at the moment. Thankfully he's got a pretty good on switch/off switch.

It's funny, but one of the bigger challenges we're having at the moment is his little awkward puppy body. He has *no* idea where his legs are and how they work at speed. I can't tell you how many times he's accidently run into me...during recalls at our agility class last weekend our instructor said he looked like Bambi on ice. :) I know it's temporary (at least I hope it is!), but I'm thinking about getting knee pads until he finds his brakes.

As much as I enjoy working with him, I have to say that I love his temperament more than anything. He's just so darn easy to have around! At the last agility trial I had him out around the rings quite a bit and despite everything that was going on around him, he was happy to plop down and stretch out in the dirt and watch. As much as I love Peyton, it's such a nice change to not have to micromanage all the time.

In other puppy news, at 7 months (and a few days), Derby is about the same height as Indy (20"-21"ish) and was around 50# when I last weighed him (a week or so ago, I think?). I don't really think he's going to get much taller, but we'll see. Everyone seems to think he looks big in pictures, but he's still a shrimp standing next to Peyton. :)

I have some pictures and video to share if I can ever manage to find a few more hours in the day. In the meantime, here's one of him looking very grownup-ish.

Yay Indy!

2011-04-01T22:44:00.003-04:00

We had our club agility trial last weekend (I'm just a tad bit behind) and Indy saved our NQ weekend with a lovely jumpers run. She was moving pretty good too...I think I did 5 front crosses (on a novice course!), which is probably a record for me. Not bad for my little girlie who trials 3 times a year!

As for Peyton...some good, some bad, but overall pretty inconsistent. We actually did much better on the jumpers courses, which is unusual. He just missed qualifying on Saturday by one stinkin' bar. One bar! My fault, of course.

I'm thinking that we might not be trialing again until the fall, which is kind of a bummer. I still feel like in order to really make progress we need to trial more frequently, but it just gets so expensive...and time consuming. So maybe a long break is in order. I feel like this season we've just not found a rhythm with training/trialing...so definitely something to work on.

The AKC Agility Nationals are this weekend in Virginia. I have several friends competing this year and I really wish I could be there! Not necessary to compete (although that would be nice *one* of these days)...I just enjoy watching really good agility (and rooting for friends, of course!). I'm settling for facebook updates and so far they've been pretty good. :)

DCA Nationals are at the end of the month and I was really hoping to make it this year, but unfortunately that's not going to happen either. I am looking forward to updates from all my friends though (hint, hint!). We *will* make it sometime in the next few years, providing it's not too far away.

Derby pup is doing great - next post will be a training update. In the meantime, here are a few (old) pictures.

Nope, he doesn't have attitude. Not at all. :)

Happy weekend!

Always Something

2011-03-17T23:07:00.007-04:00

After several weeks of bizarre Peyton behavior, it appears that I have my happy spotty dog back. More about that in a few, but first I thought I'd share some video from this past weekend's trial.

It's really too bad we can't edit runs in real time, instead of waiting for video! Overall we had some nice runs, but the theme this weekend (for me) was poor use of motion. When I needed to *move*, I was being a weenie and when I needed to be *patient*, I was moving. Poor Peyton; he really does a good job putting up with me.

The good news is that he was happy...which brings me back to his bizarre behavior. Over the past several weeks, we've been dealing with the following:

Frantic grass eating

Increased anxiety/nervousness

Depressed behavior

Random shaking for no apparent reason

Increased reactivity

OCD type behavior, including air biting

It was very, very odd and very random. One minute he'd be anxious and the next he would act depressed. My vet checked him out and couldn't find anything obvious, and his blood work came back good so there really wasn't anything to explain why my spotty dog had suddenly lost his mind. Until...I remembered that he had a rabies vaccine a few days before all this started. Ugh. Because I do very little vaccinating, I didn't even think about it. The only reason why I had the rabies done is because a) it's required by law and b) because we do a fair amount of traveling.

A friend of mine agreed that a "mental" reaction was very possible and suggested that I give him the homeopathic remedy Lyssin ASAP. I gave him a dose late one night and the next morning was the first in weeks where Peyton didn't wake me up pacing. And he's been back to pretty much his usual level of craziness ever since.

While I can't say 100% that his behavior was due to a vaccine reaction, it seems the most likely culprit. Soooo, my PSA of the day is that if your dog seems to jump on the crazy train after a rabies vaccine, please consider the possibility of a reaction. It was certainly a very unnerving couple of weeks for me, but (fingers crossed) hopefully he's recovered now.

It's always something. :)

Happy 1/2 Birthday Derby!

2011-03-10T23:10:00.004-05:00

Derby is 6 months old today! Can you believe I brought this little monster home 4 months ago? :)

Since I really don't have the energy for a full pupdate, I'm hoping a cute video will suffice. This is Derby with his best Golden bud, Finn. I didn't manage to really capture it on video, but he *loves* sticking his entire head in Finn's mouth. Silly pup. I don't know what he's going to do when his head no longer fits. :)

Happy 1/2 Derby Day!

More Derby Adventures

2011-03-06T09:11:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe, but Derby pup will be 6 months old next week. Again, what happened to my "puppy"...he's looking so grown up these days!

We've had a busy, busy week. Last Saturday he joined me at the Celebration of Pets in Sarasota - it was a huge event and he met hundreds of new friends. It was also a very long day (10+ hours) and he was *such* a good puppy. Here's a picture of him manning my booth.

He has since demanded a big raise and a new title (Public Relations Manager, of course). :)

Yesterday we made a 3 hour trip north for a Dalmatian "fun day" and Derby got to give coaching a try. So fun! He took to it right away...very cool to see that instinct kick in.

And here's a little video...

Good boy Derb! As much as I love agility training, and training in general, nothing beats seeing a Dal doing what they were bred to do. I'd love to start some road trial training with him once he grows up and matures a bit. Of course, I'd also love to have a horse again. Derby too...he especially enjoyed their "cookies". :)

Agility Dals

2011-02-21T20:37:00.002-05:00

I was recently asked if I had any advice for someone who is interested in getting a Dalmatian someday and would like to give agility a try. I'm a little late on my reply (sorry!), but I thought I'd share my thoughts.

It probably goes without saying that I think Dalmatians, in general, are great candidates for agility. They are very athletic dogs known for their (sometimes endless amounts of) energy and endurance. As many dogs do, they certainly benefit from having a job and a positive outlet for all that spotty enthusiasm! I've only worked with a few agility Dals personally, but have watched a number of others over the years and am happy to share my observations.

When it comes to picking a dog with a performance career in mind, it's my honest option that temperament is probably one of the most important considerations, along with structure. As much as I love Peyton, and wouldn't trade him for anything (most days!), he has quite a bit of genetic baggage, as one of my trainers would say. When choosing the Derby pup, temperament was at the very top of my list. I honestly couldn't even tell you if there are any top performance dogs in his lines as that's just not something *I* really consider all that important.

While I do think there is a lot of value in selecting a pup from an experienced, reputable breeder who can help find a good match in terms of temperament, structure, and personality, there are certainly some great rescued Dals out there competing too! If I were looking for a performance candidate specifically, I would probably look for a dog (with those qualities) that's at least a year old, but that's just based on my personal experiences only. I love puppies, but they certainly can be unpredictable.

As far as training goes, while there really aren't any issues that are *unique* to Dalmatians, I have found that many Dals share similar challenges.

I thinks the breed, in general, can be deceptively soft. I say deceptively because I think the average observer sees their high energy and fun loving personalities and will often mistake training issues and signs of stress for stubbornness or even stupidity. I'm sure that most people who watch Peyton run in a trial have no idea that he's very capable of melting into a puddle of spots (so to speak) if he feels like he's done something wrong.

Not that their sensitive nature is a bad thing, but it's definitely something to keep in mind when training. Training has to be *fun* for both dog and handler, and I think building confidence is more important than doing everything perfectly. This can be a hard concept for a lot of handlers (myself included!) to grasp, especially when first starting out, but I think it pays off in the long run.

Dals are clowns and boy dals in particular can be especially silly and verrrrrry slow to mature. A sense of humor is a *requirement*, and I'm pretty sure my boys think their number one job is to keep me entertained. :) I have found that it's much easier to work with their instincts rather against them. Resources such a Control Unleashed (books and DVDs) are invaluable for those struggling with various control/reactivity/training issues.

Probably the best training advice I can give is to find a really good (positive!) trainer (or school) that you're comfortable working with. I've been fortunate to work with some really amazing trainers, but I've definitely met a few that made me want to run in the opposite direction...quickly!

Those are my off-the-top-of-my-head rambling thoughts! Now my Dal friends, it's *your* turn - have any advice to offer? Please leave a comment!

Since no post is complete without pictures, here are some of Peyton from a recent trial...love them ears!

In other news, we have a winner in our shampoo giveaway! Suzanne, please send me an e-mail (to agiliespots(at)aol.com) with your address.

Also, for my Honest Kitchen fans, I've uploaded new coupons! Just click on the Honest Kitchen logo on the right hand side of the page. And if you are in the Sarasota/Bradenton area, I'm happy to report that Holistic for Pets is now carrying several varieties in their stores!

Paaaarrrrty!

2011-02-15T20:33:00.004-05:00

The spotty boys and I headed over to Vero Beach this past weekend for a three day trial. This was their first time staying in a hotel together, and it turned out to be rather...entertaining.

I don't know if I've mentioned it much here, but Derby is a very busy pup. *Very* busy. He is pretty much the spotty equivalent of the energizer bunny. He just keeps going and going and going! At home I manage it with lots of crate breaks, but I didn't think the other guests would really appreciate me attempting to train a quiet crate behavior at the hotel (he is very good at home).

Derby learned during his first trip that hotels are fun. He learned on this trip that hotel stays with Peyton are double the fun! Peyton was a very good puppysitter and did his best to try and keep Derby entertained, but even after 3+ hours of playing (and walks) every night, he *still* wanted to keep going, and I pretty much had to hold him until he would finally fall asleep. On a good note, once he's out, he's out for the night.

Night one: hotels are fun!

OMD. Does he *ever* give up?

Night two: Maybe he won't notice I'm here...

Night three: *Finally!*

On the trial front, it was another big fat NQ weekend for us, but we did have some nice runs. There was only one jumpers run that was a bit of a train wreck; the others we just missed qualifying by one or two little things. With the exception of one very naughty running dogwalk, contacts were pretty good. Peyton was happy. I was happy. Derby was happy. Happy is good. :)

Vet's Best Shampoo - Giveaway!

2011-02-08T08:57:00.002-05:00

Confession of the day: I'm a shampoo addict. It's gotten a little better over the years, but I'm still always looking for the *perfect* shampoo. Fortunately for the spotties, I'm not quite as obsessed when it comes to their shampoo, BUT I do love trying new brands. While there are some that I like more than others, I'm not really loyal to any one in particular.

Vet's Best recently sent me their Allergy Itch Relief Shampoo to try. Thankfully at the moment we seem to be okay on the allergy front, but this shampoo is also supposed to be good for dogs with sensitive skin. Much to Peyton's dismay, we got to try it out on Saturday after he came home from the trial with orange feet (from the dirt). While Peyton would give any shampoo a bad review, I really liked it! It's got a nice minty smell and definitely did a good job cleaning.

Personally I like to use a conditioner on the spotty dogs, and while Vet's Best does have a Moisture Mist Conditioner, Peyton is not a big fan of sprays so I'm not sure that he would be very impressed. I might have to give it a try anyway - while the shampoo did leave his coat soft, I think he would benefit from a little additional moisturizing. But even without the conditioner, Vet's Best gets 2 thumbs up from me!

Now here's your chance to try Vet's Best shampoo! I have a 16 oz. bottle of their all natural Oatmeal Medicated Shampoo to give away. All you need to do is leave a comment and I'll pick a winner randomly next week. Any ol' comment will do, but if you happen to have a favorite brand of shampoo, please feel free to share!

To learn more about all the different Vet's Best products, you can visit their website at www.vetsbest.com. They also offer a handy dandy solution wheel that provides recommendations based on particular symptoms.

Peyton Rocks

2011-02-07T10:35:00.003-05:00

I've had such a fun week with Peyton. We spent three days at camp with Karen and Ann and he was a *superstar*. I wasn't sure how he would handle three full working days, but he faired much better than I did! We worked through some really challenging sequences (lots of serps, threadles, and sends) and I couldn't have asked for a better performance. He's not really built for tight international style course work, but he really powered through and gave me some great turns *and* really nice speed. Good spotty! He really does try sooooo hard and I came away with a new appreciation for what *we* are capable of. Good times!

I made a late decision to enter him in a local USDAA trial on Saturday with the promise to myself that it was for practice only and I would not get upset over being called on any of the up-contacts. Stupid rule, but it is what it is. In any case we had some nice runs! He should have qualified in advanced gamblers, but the scribe missed 4 points in the opening, and we had a nice standard run, but he missed the up-contact on the dog walk. Oh well. I was a little flakey in Grand Prix, but he did have some really good moments there too.

On a good note, all of his a-frame contacts were pretty solid and he was 2/3 on the dogwalk. Zero teeter stops though. Oops. I'm on the fence as what to do with his a-frame - it's really hard for him to hold that contact at speed and I'm not wild about the impact. I think a quick release is much easier for him, but I'm not sure how long that will hold up before he's running. Running might be okay. Hmmm. Something (else) to think about.

Hooray for fun times with awesome spotty dogs!

Just Because

2011-01-30T12:54:00.002-05:00

...he's so stinkin' cute. :)

Growing Up Spotty

2011-01-28T11:07:00.004-05:00

Derby pup is 20 weeks today! He's definitely looking less like a puppy and more like a little spotty dog. I think the realization that he *is* going to grow up is finally starting to sink in. Darn!

With this realization in mind, I'm finding myself in the "what should I be doing with you" stage. Not that we've been sitting around doing nothing (although some days that sure would be nice!) - I'm just starting to think more about foundation type work that is appropriate for his age. It's so easy to forget that he really doesn't know all that much. I think Peyton must have learned everything while he was sleeping because I sure don't remember much of our puppy training. :)

One thing I know we need to really start working on is better puppy manners when greeting people. He thinks everyone wants a Derby puppy in their lap (complete with kisses), and now that he's getting bigger, that's not always the case. Now, I do know that if I was a really good puppy trainer, I would have trained a polite greeting from the very start, but since the idea of having a puppy that *really* loved people was pretty novel to me, I decided that I was going to enjoy his enthusiastic greetings while he was small and just deal with having to train a different behavior later on. Like now. :) Hopefully it won't be too difficult and in fairness, he does have a very gentle way of crawling up your leg.

Here's a little video of us playing around on the agility field last weekend. Such great attention even with all of the noise from what must have been target practicing nearby. Good spotty pup!

Broken Contacts

2011-01-25T22:45:00.004-05:00

Had a good time at the trial on Saturday...it was a double NQ day, but we had some nice moments. For the most part, once we got past the openings, the rest of our runs were pretty good.

However, I think our contacts might be officially broken in trials...not a big surprise since they've been inconsistent for a while now. While he's never missed a contact (knock on wood), on Saturday we had a running dog walk, teeter *and* a-frame. Oops.

In all fairness, our lack of a consistent 2 on/2 off in trials is entirely my doing. And to be honest, I'm not sure that I would have changed much even though I knew that we would be at this point sooner or later. While Peyton has pretty darn good contacts in practice, I've made quite a few adjustments in trials, so I can't really blame him for not holding his contacts...or in some cases even stopping. :)

I'm not all that concerned...just one more thing to add to our "need to work on" list. It's really not long enough. Ahem.

Besides, Peyton thinks the 1RTBI (one rear toenail barely in) method of contact training is the way to go...

Seriously, how fun is this face?

His enthusiasm is contagious. :)

Longer legs would be helpful. Referring to *me*, of course.

How can you *not* love him?

Pupdates!

2011-01-21T21:00:00.004-05:00

Long before our Derby pup came along, I had all of these great thoughts about how well I was going to document my next puppy's puppyhood. In addition to starting a new puppy blog, I even planned on trying to take a picture every single day for the first year. Clearly, I didn't plan on getting a pup smack dab in the middle of my busy season. But hey, it's all good...even though Derby's arrival wasn't exactly "planned", I wouldn't change a thing.

Derby pup is 19 weeks old today and is living up to his nickname, "rottenlittlespottedpuppymonster". Well, except for the little part...he's almost as big as Indy now. In all fairness, he really is pretty darn good as far as puppies go - BUT - he's also at that stage where games like "catch me if you can" become really, really fun. Ah, memories. Let's just say after a lot of hunting, I've found my long line. :)

Rottenness aside, he's been *such* a positive addition to our little spotty home. I still find myself in awe when I watch them all together. Especially Indy. I don't she has played this much...ever! She just adores him and seems to be very happy to finely have a spotty that appreciates (and loves!) her rough play style. And Peyton...while he doesn't have a future in the WWF, he seems to enjoy the little monster most of the time. They are both extremely tolerant of his antics...so much so that I'm starting to wonder when Derby's puppy license is going to expire.

In other news, we've got lots of fun stuff coming up! Peyton and I are headed to a trial tomorrow up in Tampa. Next week Derby and I are going to a puppy seminar with Silvia Trkman, which I'm really looking forward to - she seems like a lot of fun! And then the following week Peyton and I are attending a three day handling camp, which should be equally fun (and exhausting, I'm sure!). Right now I've only got a few trials planned in February and March, but if I feel like we're making some progress, we might add a few more. I've been trying to do a little better in the training front - not necessarily training harder, but (hopefully) smarter. If anything, Peyton seems to be running with even more speed and enthusiasm than ever - which is definitely *fun*, but could make trailing even more interesting. We'll see. :)

That's it for our overdue pupdate! I'll leave you with a fun picture from last week...my three stooges; always entertaining.

Derby - 4 Months!

2011-01-09T19:39:00.002-05:00

Derby is 4 months old tomorrow! He's getting big and is really starting to fill out...I think it's so unfair that puppies grow up so quickly! While it's exciting to think about doing "big dog" things, I really wish this stage of puppyhood would last a little longer.

Poor Derby is unhappy with me at the moment for subjecting him to a day of crate rest. This morning he ran into the corner of the couch (of all things?) and came up screaming with one front leg up in the air. It was so dramatic that I thought for sure he had broken something, but after he calmed down I checked him over and couldn't find anything obvious. He's favoring his right front a little though so I'm trying to keep him quiet and if he still looks off tomorrow I'll have my vet come over and take a look. Gah; I swear this puppy is going to give me a full head of grey hair. It seems like he is always running into something! Earlier this week I let him play around on the agility field with the Goldens and he ran full speed into the side of one of them (who was standing still) and landed with a big grunt. Seriously Derby; you don't just bounce off a 80+ dog that is all muscle. Silly puppy.

Other than thinking he is super puppy with wings, he continues to be just a really awesome pup. I had him out quite a bit at the last trial and nothing really seems to phase him; he was just happy to hang out and take everything in...so confident and easy going. He met lots of new dogs including several cute little border collie girls. :)

Even though he's met hundreds of new people so far, I still can't get over how much he loves them all. If we pass someone who doesn't acknowledge him, he acts genuinely disappointed...he thinks everyone should be his best friend! And while he will show interest in other dogs, he will usually bypass them to try and meet their owner. Such a happy pup.

We started a basic obedience class last week (mainly to get him working in a more distracting environment) and he was a brilliant puppy. We were sitting next to two large, very unruly dogs and he was able to focus on me for the entire class. A lot to ask for a puppy his age, but he was awesome. He even pulled out some end-of-leash stays that I didn't know we had. Good Derby pup!

I'm really not in any hurry to do a whole lot of formal training with him, but putting him in a class forces me to spend time working on the basics. Silly puppy trick are much more entertaining. :)

Here are a few pictures I took on the agility field last week...

Cookie, please?

Starting to loose his little smooshy puppy nose. :(

What are *you* looking at?

He was so funny...getting a picture of him moving is next to impossible because if he knows I have cookies, he's always right on top of me. Once he figured out that he wasn't getting anything, he started exploring a bit, but I would call him when he got too far away. He would come flying back (good boy!) to a big reward. He then figured out that the key to getting cookies was to run away and pretty soon he would run away while looking over his shoulder as if to say "look at me, I'm running away" and when I ignored him he would get mad and come flying back on his own (again, to a big reward).

Clever puppy.

Happy New Year - Peyton AXJ!

2011-01-03T08:16:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

After 5 days of trialing, we're pretty exhausted, but I'm happy to report that Peyton got his AXJ title yesterday! It was our only Q all week, but at least we managed to pull it together for our last run. And it was a great one!

I'm usually pretty critical of our runs (mostly my part), but no critiquing today - 1st place, a 26.75 sec. run, and 18+ seconds under SCT. Awesome spotty!

It felt so great to get that last "A" leg! It's not so much about the title, but it was starting to feel like we were going to be stuck in A forever.

As for the rest of our runs, we had several where we were *this* close and a few near train wrecks. I didn't get all of our runs on tape, but here is a video of some of our better moments.

I think the best news is that I didn't step on Peyton toes or make him cry once! I tried to be extra careful to make sure all of his runs were drama free. We did quite a bit of work around the gate area and while he's not anywhere close to being *relaxed*, I think we made quite a bit of progress in that area.

Overall, I think my primary goal for this trial was (mostly) achieved. It would have been nice to have had a few more consistent runs, but I'm pretty darn happy with that JWW Q! I've done a lot of thinking over the past few days and realized that while I've spent a considerable amount of time and energy working on the mental aspect of trialing (for both of us), it's been way too long since I've had the time to really *train* on a consistent basis. And it definitely shows - our contacts are getting a little sloppy and in general, I think were lacking that connection and confidence that comes from time working together outside of the ring.

I'm not a big fan of New Years resolutions, but my goal for the 2011 is to find time - make time - for training. It's something that I love to do, but haven't been able to devote the time we really need to continue to progress and grow as a team. This year, I'll definitely be working on finding more *me* time!

Happy 2011 - hopefully it's going to be a great year for all!

The Drawing Board

2010-12-28T13:27:00.004-05:00

Look at me...two posts in one day! Can you tell I'm trying to get caught up?

I realized that I never shared videos from our last trial a few weeks ago...it's probably a good thing that I was so busy as I didn't really have time to obsess over what happened on Sunday. More on that in a bit, but first some good news...

Indy ran in novice JWW and qualified with first place! I moved her down to preferred so now she's only jumping 16", which is the perfect height for her, I think. She had a great time! And such a good girlie considering she is pretty much a "backyard" agility dog these days. :)

Peyton also had some really nice runs that weekend, with two 1st place FAST runs for his XF title and his 2nd MX leg with 25 MACH points.

As much as I'm not a big fan, FAST really is the perfect class for him. He can totally make up his own course and qualify!

Our Standard run - wasted some time with the big spin before the chute, but I was late with my rear and I think Peyton remembered that line from the FAST class earlier. Good spotty!

Now for the bad part...on Sunday we started with a really nice FAST run and had an okay-ish Standard run. By the time we got around to Jumpers, my brain was toast and we just kinda muddled our way through the course. The ending was pretty good - until Peyton finished the last jump and wouldn't come to me. He trotted all around the finish area with his tail between his legs for over a minute before I finally caught him. Keep in mind that despite all of our goofy runs in trials, he has *never* not come to me at the end. He seriously looked like I was going to beat him. I was totally devastated.

After I had a chance to calm down and really think about it, I remembered that Peyton had yelped when I put his leash on after his standard run. So more than likely, he was worried that I was going to "hurt" him again. Fabulous. Now I have a spotty that is afraid I'm going to hurt him before *and* after runs. Any doubts I had were pretty much confirmed when he had a brilliant run in class last week, but started acting goofy when I went to put the leash on.

It's so frustrating. I feel like we take 2 steps forward, 1 step back, and 3 steps sideways. I know it's a performance anxiety type of issue and I've tried a number of things to try and make it better, but none have really helped. At this point I think it's either keep trying or quit trialing. Since I'm not quite ready to give up, we're going back to the drawing board.

Starting tomorrow, we have 5 days of local trials and my only goal is to work on getting Peyton to relax near the ring. He's perfectly fine in his crate and walking around the grounds, but as soon as he thinks he's going to run, his muscles tighten and he starts trembling. I used to think that he was just stressed out around the gate area, but now I think it has more to do with him knowing that he's going to run. I don't think there's any doubt that he *loves* running, but we're not going to make any progress if he gets "hurt" before and after a run only because he's so hyped up that any physical contact causes a reaction. I'm also planning on using my very light slip lead since he seems to have an issue with the clip on regular leads. Geez...have I mentioned lately how weird my spotty dogs are?

And for my friends: if you happen to see us sitting in a corner burning incense and looking meditative, please don't laugh...too hard. :)

Holiday Rewind

2010-12-28T12:28:00.002-05:00

These past few months have been such a blur! Wouldn't it be nice if we could turn back the clock and have a little more time to enjoy the holidays (with all of our work done, of course)?

The spotties and I had a lovely Christmas with my parents. It was quiet and relaxing and a much needed little break after a very busy month. Derby thought his first Christmas was pretty awesome...he loved shredding all of the wrapping paper and playing with lots of new toys. Peyton was pretty much in a state of spotted bliss for two straight days; he loves opening presents and thinks that every one is just for him. He was a very good boy though and only had to be reminded a few times that Christmas was for sharing. :)

As usual, Indy boycotted Christmas. She finds the whole present unwrapping ritual (and Peyton's over the top behavior) totally annoying. I love her to pieces, but she is just so...weird. Spotty Grinch.

Here's a little video of my two boys that actually enjoy the holidays...

Thankfully Santa has not been eaten...yet. I told them that if they ate Santa this year they wouldn't get any presents next year. :) I have to give big thanks to our friends on the east coast who sent us Santa and some other really fun toys...they love them all!

Hope everyone had a really nice holiday! Just think, in 4 more days it will be 2011...how crazy is that!?

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T16:22:00.004-05:00

Wishing all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas filled with lots of love and laughter!

There's certainly no shortage of laughter in my household...

Love,

Kim, Indy, Peyton, and Derby

Derby's First Road Trip

2010-12-20T23:36:00.006-05:00

Derby had his first little road trip last week - I was the photographer for the Dalmatian club specialties in Orlando on Thursday and Friday and he came along for the ride!

He thinks hotels are awesome - the first thing he learned is that as soon as you enter your room, it is dinnertime! Then when you return later, it is dinnertime again! (He doesn't quite understand that human dinnertime is not the same as puppy dinnertime, much to his dismay). And thankfully, he seems to understand (at least for now) that hotels are also for sleeping - hooray!

On Friday morning, we took a trip over to the local Bass Pro Shop, which I had heard was very dog friendly. He got to ride around in a cart and meet lots of new people who stopped to oooh and aaah over him. He thought that was FUN!

Derby also got to meet Santa Claus and now he thinks that Santa doesn't like spotty puppies because he wouldn't hold him (even just the leash) for a picture. Something about "smelling like a dog". Humph.

At least my mom is thrilled that she now has a picture of her 30-something year old daughter sitting with Santa. :)

On the training front, I really haven't had much time to do much work with him, but he does get to go a lot of places with me and has met lots of people and kids, which I think is probably most important at this age. I do try to spend a few minutes each day working on tricks, which he loves.

Here's a little video from Saturday - this was his first time rolling over. So cute!

He really is scary smart - to the point that I think he's training me more than the other way around. :)

For the most part, he is just a really, really good puppy. Here's another video from a few weeks ago...he's definitely more "vocal" than I'm used to, but (thankfully) he doesn't have too many puppy tantrums.

Derby had his first studio photo shoot a few weeks back and I have to say that it was probably the most challenging shoot I've ever done. A 12 week old puppy that doesn't sit still for more than 2 seconds + a Santa hat = painful. I did manage to get a few good shots for my cards though!

All three spotties continue to get along fabulously! I think Indy has played more with Derby in the past month than she has ever played in her 6+ years. She acts all flirty around him - it's so cute! And Peyton thinks that he's a lot of fun too - it's really entertaining when all three of them go at it. There are spots flying everywhere!

So that's it for my long overdue pupdate! It's Indy and Peyton's turn next. :)

Silly Puppy Tricks

2010-12-05T10:13:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's December 5th...how is that possible?! I love the holidays, but this time of year my "to-do" list is truly frightening. I'm hoping in January (2011 - yikes!), I'll be able to take a little breather and really concentrate on my little Derby pup who is growing up much too fast. He's 12 weeks now - again, how is that possible?!

Derby continues to be just a perfect fit for our little spotty household. Like any puppy, he has his "moments", but really is a good boy. Peyton and Indy *love* him and sometimes it feels like I have three puppies in the house! They all play so well together - it makes me soooo happy to see them all getting along.

I've been doing quite a bit of clicker work with Derby - he's really taken to it very quickly, as many pups do. He's learning a lot of new tricks, although none of them are really on cue yet. It's so much fun to see him think and offer behaviors - so much so that I'm sure it's going to bite me at some point. If we're out somewhere and he thinks there's a chance that he could get a treat, he immediately starts offering everything that has ever been rewarded. Very cute and very entertaining, but he's starting to look a little like a fish out of water. :)

Here's a little video shot on Thanksgiving that many of you have already seen on facebook. (I know - I'm a late blogger!) This was day 3 of shaping - he learned to back up on the first day, a backward crawl on the second day, and this was the first time he offered lifting his front paws. So stinkin' cute!

He is definitely forcing me to be a better clicker trainer! If I'm late or don't give him enough information, he gets mad and pounces on me. Yup, he can be a little bit of a hot head. :)

I'll have to get some new pictures and videos soon - poor Derby; I was hoping to be able to document his puppyhood a little better, but by the time I have a chance to take pictures, it's usually dark out. Maybe I need to hire a pet photographer? :)

Puppy Love

2010-11-30T09:57:00.002-05:00

First, a little trial update from Sunday - our runs weren't as nice as Friday, but overall, they weren't too bad. Although I think I need to remember *not* to enter days when big dogs run first if the trial site is over an hour away. Our jumper's run was a little wild, but that was partially my fault since I got there late (surprise) and didn't allow for enough time for a proper warm up. At least I managed to get there in time to walk the first half of the course! Poor Peyton...I don't think either of us are big fans of getting up early in the morning. :)

Our standard run was much better and we only had one off-course before the table. I was too busy reminding myself to train contacts and wasn't thinking about where we were going. As for the contacts, Peyton decided that we were going to have a running dogwalk and a-frame. Oops! Yes, someone needs to spend some actual training time to remind Peyton that he's *supposed* to stop. I was happy that I managed to do two front crosses in the opening though!

Little Derby pup tagged along both days and met a bunch of new friends. He's really a great traveler, although I'm sure he thinks agility trials are pretty boring at the moment. :)

And speaking of Derby, I think Peyton is now officially a member of his fan club - they have been getting along so well together! I swear, Peyton never fails to surprise me...I never dreamed that he would be so *good* with a puppy. I love-love-love this little video of them playing yesterday...

I still can't get over how he's lets Derby jump all over him...and I've never seen him play on his back like that! What a super good spotty boy! More Derby pupdates coming soon. :)

Beach Bums

2010-11-26T22:37:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did...it was so nice to spend the day with family, relaxing and enjoying a little trip to the beach with Indy and Derby.

Indy had a great time, as usual, and I think Derby had fun too - although he thought the water was COLD. I tried to take some video with my phone, but it was too bright to see the screen so I gave up after a few tries...

He did manage to get in the water up to his belly, but started shivering so we decided to go play in the sand instead. :)

Since Peyton HATES the beach, he stayed home, but did get to go to an agility trial up in Tampa today, which he thought was much more fun. We had two really nice runs with just a few handler errors. In JWW I sent him off-course, and in Standard, I almost pulled him off a tunnel and then attempted two awkward (unplanned) rear crosses and we missed the a-frame. I couldn't figure out why he would pull off a tunnel (seriously, how often does that happen??) until I watched the video and realized I said his name. Oops. Good spotty!

He was flyin' today...so much fun! We're taking the day off tomorrow (well he is; I have to work) but will be heading back up early on Sunday...providing I can manage to wake up on time. I will say my little spotted alarm clock (aka Derby) is almost turning me into a morning person. Almost. :)

Very Thankful

2010-11-24T11:20:00.003-05:00

This Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for - a wonderful family, incredible friends, and three of the best spotted dogs *ever*. While I try very hard to remember this on a daily basis, I'm really looking forward to spending tomorrow with my family - and taking a much needed day off!

This year I'm especially thankful for our newest addition, Derby. I couldn't have asked for a more awesome pup and to say that we adore him would be the understatement of the year.

I'm thankful for sweet moments like this...

And those of you who know Peyton will understand how this little moment captured this morning gave me the biggest smile...and maybe even a few tears... :)

The spotties and I would like to wish all of our friends and family a very, very Happy Thanksgiving. We're thankful for all of you!

Adventures in Derbyland

2010-11-19T15:54:00.002-05:00

Derby is 10 weeks old today! He's had an exciting week...on Monday we went to meet our Golden friends (the humans) at Crispers and other than being a very persistent (and slightly obnoxious) begging puppy, he was really good! He met a few new friends and greeted everyone who walked by with a very happy tail.

Then we headed back to Lisa's house where he met her three Goldens. Actually he had seen Riley and Finn out at the club last week, but he got to meet her senior girl, Sophie. He's not big enough to *really* play with them yet, but was happy to hang out and run all over the place. He thinks Lisa's yard is much more exciting than mine - she has all kinds of bushes and plants to pay around and hide in!

Here's a Golden sandwich - Sophie on the right, Riley on the left...

Just as I was thinking about getting ready to leave, Derby decided to take off down to the lake/preserve area. Lisa ran after him and pulled him out (covered in mud), so he got a quick little shower with the hose. Then we decided to let him watch the Goldens swim in her pool. Apparently he decided watching was no fun and decided to jump in! Before I could even react, Lisa jumped in after him (fully clothed) and helped him out. Other than being cold, he didn't seem to be phased at all. At least he came up swimming! After we got him dried off, it looked like he was thinking about jumping in again, but we decided that was enough fun for one day. :)

On Wednesday he tagged along to my lesson with Peyton in Tampa. Near the end we got him out and worked with him and Peyton together on leash. I was pretty nervous, but was told that *now* was the time to start working with them. Um, okay. I had Peyton in one hand and Derby in the other and was to praise Peyton when he was near Derby, but not allow Derby to jump on and/or be obnoxious to Peyton. Yikes, this is uncoordinated me we're talking about. At one point I wasn't quick enough and Derby bit Peyton's ear - Peyton told him he didn't appreciate that *at all*, but it was a short conversation and they both recovered quickly.

It's not that I'm worried about Peyton hurting Derby; I guess I'm more worried that Derby will hurt (using this term loosely) Peyton with his super sharp puppy teeth and then Peyton will decide that the puppy really *is* evil. :) He's just so darn sensitive and has a very low pain threshold. Yes, he's a big baby. And I'm a worrywart. I know I need to let them work it out.

I did need a push though and I've since been letting them out together with Derby on leash. They have been doing well with very polite and appropriate behavior from both. We've also started taking short walks together on leash - that's entertaining. :)

It wasn't until today when I was coming out of the kitchen and watched as both of them came trotting up to me (Derby was *supposed* to be in his crate), did I realize that I'm probably just being silly. As long as I work with them and continue to take it slow, Peyton *will* be fine. I'm sure there will be some "conversations", but it will all work out and I'm sure they'll be good friends in no time.

That's our update for now...hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

MX Leg #1!

2010-11-16T20:07:00.005-05:00

Peyton and had a local 3 day trial this past weekend, and it was a good time! On Friday, we got our first MX leg in Standard with first place an 34 MACH points! It was a really nice run and more than made up for the fact that I missed our JWW walkthrough earlier. Oops! Other than me running into Peyton (ouch!) while he was still in the chute, it wasn't too bad, but I really shouldn't attempt any more jumpers' runs without walking them first. Unfortunately, I didn't have a videographer, so no videos.

On Saturday we started with Standard and I did manage to get there on time, although the trial was running sooooo slow I could have slept in. We had another really nice run, but just missed qualifying (and another first place!) because of a refusal at the table. He didn't hold his contacts as well as he did on Friday, but otherwise, he was a very good spotty. I was super pleased with how well he handled the opening...I was pretty sure that a-frame was going to call his name. :)

We had some nice moments on Sunday, but no Q's. Overall, I think I'm making some good progress with my "operation attitude adjustment". I had fun; he had fun. It was a great trial weekend!

And since everyone has been asking - Derby puppy is doing wonderfully! He seems to love everyone he meets and has a growing fan club. He came with me to the trial on Friday for a little while (he stayed crated in the car) and then my parents came to pick him up for an overnight stay. I missed him, but I knew he would have much more fun at "grandma's house". And from what I heard, he had a grand time! I was a little worried my mom and dad wouldn't bring him back...I think it's safe to say Derby has them wrapped around his little paws. :)

He came home on Saturday night with a hefty dose of confidence and had his first real play session with Indy. Indy is very good when it comes to teaching puppies that she will play when she wants to and only when she wants to...if she isn't in the "mood", then she will (firmly, but gently) let them know. Derby seems to understand and has (so far) been very respectful.

I'm still taking it very slow with Peyton, but he's really adjusting well (much better than I ever expected) to having a puppy in the house. I think he was even a little excited to have Derby puppy back home.

On Sunday morning, Derby came along with us to the trial since I knew it wouldn't be too long of a day. He did great and every time I checked on him he was either napping or just hanging out in his crate. He also got a lot of "visitors" and greeted them all with wags and kisses. Good puppy!

An agility friends asked me (on day 2) how training was going and if Derby already knew all of the basic "commands". After I laughed (probably a little too hard), I explained that at this point my primary goal is that I have a happy, confident puppy that is comfortable at home and on the road, so to speak. I have no doubt that he will learn everything that he needs to know in time, but for now I'm more concerned that he meets lots of people, appropriate dogs, and has very positive experiences in puppy-safe environments.

Thankfully (for my hearing), he seemed to learn one important home lesson right away: no matter how cute you are, no amount of screaming is going to get you out of your crate as long as I know that you don't have to potty...oh, and the crate door will not open if you're jumping on it. :) I think he had that pretty much figured out after the first day and has since been really good about being quiet while in his crate and not charging the door. He's also learning how to settle before he gets his dinner - that one's a little more challenging because this pup *loves* to eat! He reminds me of Pongo in that sense...he starts squealing and bouncing all over the place when he smells food. And in case your curious, he's now eating The Honest Kitchen and hasn't shown (knock on wood) any signs of an upset tummy since we brought him home.

In addition to learning some self-control (and an off-switch!) we're doing lots of playing, chasing, and (informal) off-leash healing. I also introduced the clicker today - I'm by no means a clicker "purist" and more likely fall into the "lurers anonymous" group, but I do like using it for some things. We'll have to see if Derby has more patience than Peyton (and me) with shaping games.

How's that for a puppy update!? We did have a very big, exciting day with our Golden friends yesterday, but we'll save that post for another day.

ps - for more puppy pictures, check out my facebook fan page!

Meet Derby!

2010-11-12T08:07:00.003-05:00

Our House of Spots has a new addition! Meet Derby, who we just brought home Monday night. He's 9 weeks old today and is absolutely ADORABLE!

If you follow my Simply Spotted Photography blog, then you might just recognize this little guy...

And you probably remember me stating that my visit was only for the opportunity to take some puppy pictures and get a much needed puppy fix. Which was, at the time, 100% true. But those of you who know me were probably already taking bets as to how soon a new puppy would be joining our spotty household. :) Am I right?

When I visited the pups, I honestly didn't have a real favorite because they were *all* adorable and it was a little hard to keep track of eight wiggly pups moving all over the place. But when I got home and saw the pictures, I fell in love with this little guy. Not only is he gorgeous, but he has the same left ear patch as Peyton and of course, Indy's blue eyes. I couldn't help but to think he might be a good match.

For the record, even though I wasn't anticipating getting a pup from this litter, I've pretty much had my mind set on getting an Argus pup (his daddy) for a looong time and was on his owner/breeder's list for a performance prospect. After hearing how nice the "blue eyed patched pup" was, and how he had great structure and a fantastic personality (Both Argus and Derby's mom Sugar have great temperaments), I decided to take a chance and see if might be available.

Fortunately for me, this little guy's ear patch kept him heading up north to live with Argus and family, as he would have been the pick of the litter. For those of you unfamiliar with the breed, there is nothing "wrong" with patched pups, but patches are a disqualification in the (conformation) show ring.

And so he came to live with us!

Derby is settling in like a champ. The first 24 hours were a little - okay, a LOT - loud around here, but nothing that wasn't expected from a new puppy. He had a lot to say about his new home!

He's quickly learning that SOTC (our training club) is our home away from home. He came with me Tuesday and Thursday night and was a very good puppy (crated in the car) while I taught my class. And on Wednesday he learned that club meetings are a LOT of fun! We hung out in the back of the ring with our Golden friends and were quite the distraction (oops!) since all of our SOTC friends wanted to come say hello.

Derby is a clever little puppy. If I have a piece of chicken in my hand, he lets me know that he is well aware that I have a whole bunch of chicken in my pocket and he'd much rather have that, thank you very much. During the club meeting he crawled in (yes, in!) our friend Lisa's purse and emerged with a big bag of treats. Ah, 8 weeks old and he's already a pickpocket! :)

I know it's only been a few days, but he's showing all the signs of being everything I could ask for from a puppy. He's very confident, yet sensible, and seems to have good instincts when it comes to accessing new situations. He's only been startled a few times, but recovers very quickly. He loves to play, is very food motivated - and overall, is just one very happy (and entertaining) pup!

I'm being very careful not to overwhelm him, but he has met many new people and a few dogs that I know and trust. He's done awesome with both.

On Wednesday night we stayed at my parents house since I had a morning session nearby and he was introduced to the puppy equivalent of Disney World. My guys all love going to "grandma's house" and I'm sure he will be no different. He met their mini doxie, Lucy (who is about the same size - for now) and they had a BALL playing together. It was so cute and I'll share some video when I have a chance.

I know you're all wondering what Indy and Peyton think, and I have to say I couldn't be happier with how they are handling our new addition! Indy's reaction was exactly what I was expected - she was super excited to meet him, but once she realized he was sticking around, has settled into her idea of coexistence. She really wants to play with him at times, but realizes that he's not quite ready so they do lots of sniffing and tail wagging.

She is also making sure he learns some of the really important things in life - such as how to tackle a big pile of moss with gusto!

I am taking the introductions very slow with Peyton, but he is doing fabulously. He's not exactly sure what to make of this funny little puppy, but he's been hanging out right next to his crate in my little office area and will occasionally bring over a toy to squeak in his face (such a tease). I think once Derby is a little bigger they are going to be good friends - for now, I just want to make sure that both are comfortable around each other. I'm very happy - I thought for sure that Peyton would have have a semi-permanent pout by now, but he's really handling it all very well.

So that's our puppy story! Needless to say, we adore him, and think he's going to be a whole lot of fun. I'm so thankful to his breeders, Janey and Sue, for letting him come home with us!

Our New Addition

2010-11-10T17:33:00.004-05:00

Meet Derby! He's 8 weeks old and is one super adorable, very awesome pup. I'll be sharing more pictures and details as soon as I've had enough sleep to construct full and somewhat coherent sentences. :)

Collar Review | Dog Collar Boutique

2010-11-02T12:02:00.006-04:00

The nice folks over at Dog Collar Boutique recently sent us one of their collars to review! Today Peyton is modeling a jacquard collar by Marityn Dog in "Milky Way Navy".

First, I love the colors and design! It's a perfect match for my long time obsession with stars...and just a little bit of sparkle.

Second, and most important, it's very well made. When it comes to collars, while Peyton would love to be a stylish, designer spotty, I'm a little more practical. Collars have to be heavy duty enough to stand up to his (insane) strength and survive a lot of roughhousing and rolling around with his Golden friends.

This collar definitely meets my practicality requirements; now all we need is the matching leash!

As far as fit and sizing is concerned, Peyton seemed to be in between the medium/large side based on the measurement guidelines so I ordered the large just to be on the safe side. Since it's an adjustable collar, the large fits just fine, but the medium would have probably been the perfect size for him.

If you are a collar fanatic, I definitely recommend checking out dogcollarboutique.com - they have one of the largest selections of collars I've ever seen (really!), and the prices are very reasonable.

As for Indy, she really wants this Swarovski Crystal leather collar in purple. (I told her she needed to find a job first.)

And speaking of jobs, I think Peyton would make a great dog collar and accessory model. Anyone hiring? I keep telling him that he needs to start supporting his agility habit. :)

Halloween-ish

2010-10-31T19:54:00.005-04:00

I think Peyton and Indy win the award for lamest Halloween costume this year. At least they have a (kinda) costume, right? I think that's more than last year. And I really didn't plan on dressing them up (overstatement) and taking pictures, but then I remembered I picked these up a while back and thought we should at least try to be good sports.

Peyton was going to be the devil and Indy the witch, but I thought Peyton made a better witch and was way too happy to be a devil.

Indy has the devil act down, but she makes a pretty convincing witch too. :) (Note the tear in her left eyebrow...Peyton thinks Halloween masks make fun tug toys.)

Happy Halloween...ish!

Our Happy Place

2010-10-24T19:01:00.003-04:00

After our last USDAA trial, I knew it was time for an attitude change when it comes to agility trials. I was really annoyed with myself for being unhappy about our runs...afterall, this is a game that is supposed to be *fun*. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter how many times I send my dog, who just loves to play the game with me, off-course? He doesn't get mad at me, nor does he overanalyze every single mistake made, so why should I?

I remember when we first started trialing - Peyton could have taken every wrong course (and he often did) - but I didn't care. I was just happy that he was able to run in a trial, something that (for a long time) I didn't think was possible. I've always, always been happy with him, but as he's improved, I've expected more from both of us, and have put pressure on myself to be the really good handler that I think he deserves. Notice the *I think* part...of course, he doesn't care how good or bad I am.

So, we've spent the past few weeks trying to find our happy place. I should say, *my* happy place, since Peyton never lost sight of it. :) We've been having a lot of fun in class - lot's of playing, not a lot of thinking, and definitely no obsessing.

We had a three day trial this weekend and had a really fun time. It's against my nature to *not* be over-analytical, but I'm trying. So no more "my fault" comments from me here...if you see them in the future, please feel free to slap me. :)

We're trying a new start line routine - one I've dabbled with before, but never fully committed to. No more hanging around near the gate area - the goal is to get from an area far enough away that he's not stressing to the "chute" without stopping. The timing is a bit tricky, but I think he *loves* it. As soon as he knows he's up next, it's all I can do to keep him from ripping my arm off to get in the ring. The downside is that he is high as a kite (more so than usual) going to the line, but at least he's not as stressed.

Here's our runs from Friday - note the loooong delay at the start and the most excellent commentary from our friend taping.

And Saturday runs - helloooooo tunnels!

Sunday Standard...I missed the walk through, but with that opening (and some quick dog walk releases this weekend), I'm not sure that it would have made much of a difference. It was a nice course though.

And...saving the best for last...we got a (1st place) JWW Q today! Although poor Peyton - he screamed when I was setting him up and I spent most of the run wondering if he was hurting. I think I must have accidently pinched him (such a sensitive spotty), but he might have a few sore spots...the surface wasn't the best this weekend. See what happens when I don't overthink what I'm doing! :)

Such a good spotty dog! And I did okay too...how's that for positive thinking? Hey, at least it's a start... :)

Not Our Weekend

2010-10-05T09:18:00.003-04:00

We spent the weekend at a local USDAA trial and it was a loooong one...one of those (very rare) trial weekends where I kinda wished that we had stayed home.

Friday started off pretty well. We had a decent jumpers run followed by (several hours later) Performance Grand Prix and Speed Jumping. We had some goofy moments in both classes, but some nice ones too, especially in Grand Prix which had some really tricky spots.

Saturday was primarily a team day. We started off with a decent team gamblers run followed by a nice P1 standard run...except we got called for the up contact on the a-frame. That was a first! After another really long break we finished with a really painful team standard run and an equally painful team snooker run. Poor "Three Blondes and the Odd Spot"...my teammate did awesome all weekend, but we were pretty much done after my two stinky runs.

We had our last team run - jumpers - on Sunday morning, and it just wasn't fun. I don't know if I was just super tired from trying to do waaay too much over the past few weeks or what, but it's not fun or fair for Peyton to have a tired, cranky handler. So we decided to head home early and take a much needed nap. :)

One thing that I do think *I* need to work on is mental management. I really struggle with runs at the end of the day or after a long break between classes. It's not that I feel any anxiety or stress, it's just that I don't do well with all the down time. Maybe I need to take up knitting? Any other ideas?

We've entered a few local trials over the next few months, but I'm thinking that we'll take it easy for a while. I love trialing, but since we haven't had much time for actual training, I think we need some work. I feel like we've both made some good progress individually, but we're not really running in sync at the moment. It's all good...I think we'll get there.

Home!

2010-09-28T15:20:00.005-04:00

I'm back from my trip to Indy! The spotties were sure happy to see me. Of course, they're always happy to see me, but I got an extra warm welcome this time. :)

Had a lovely visit and as usual, I kept pretty busy visiting friends...and taking a couple thousand pictures! I didn't have time to do everything and see everyone that I would have liked to, but I learned from my first couple trips back to Indy that there is only so much you can try to fit into one day *and* keep your sanity.

I will be sharing lots of pictures over the next few weeks so if you don't currently follow my Simply Spotted Photography blog, you might just want to head over there and take a peek. And if it's any incentive, I did have a session with two super adorable (and very fun) young Dalmatians that will hopefully be up sometime later this week. :)

Peyton and I have three days of USDAA coming up this weekend. We're pairing up with our Golden friends again for the team event (remember Three Blondes and the Odd Spot?). Should be fun!

Indy's AKC Debut

2010-09-19T19:14:00.003-04:00

It was a fun weekend! Indy made her AKC debut on Saturday and I think she had a great time. I only entered her in Fast and JWW - no teeters to ruin her day. :) A little bobble in both, but she did qualify in Novice JWW with 3rd place. Good girl!

She's so cute! I will probably enter her in preferred for future trials because I think she would really enjoy jumping 16". I honestly didn't think about it in time for this trial. Other than being a little cautious, she had nice speed and loved being back in the spotlight.

Peyton had a decent weekend. We started with Excellent Fast on Saturday - not my favorite class, but he had a nice run and qualified with 1st place. He was wound up pretty tight though - no big surprise there. He seemed very spacey in standard and JWW, although it was a very long day and I can't say that I really blame him.

This morning we started out with Standard and we had an awesome run! Then I found out that the judge called a wrong course on the dog-walk. She said he had all four paws on the ground and then stepped back on the dogwalk. I didn't see it and looking back at the video, I'm pretty certain all toes were still on the contact. Bummer. I usually try not to take things like that seriously, but will admit that I was pretty disappointed. We just so rarely have runs like that! Oh well, he was still a rockstar, and that's all that really matters.

In JWW, I didn't have the best plan for the opening and he went around the second jump. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with some of these running starts...it's just hard because he is so amped! The rest of the run was fun and he he did a great job.

I have to say that the new "position-less" table is pretty awesome. No more worrying about getting those elbows all the way down...until we do USDAA...which happens to be in two weeks! :)

Remembering Pongo

2010-09-17T22:10:00.004-04:00

Today would have been Pongo's 16th birthday.

Time is such a funny thing...some days it feels like he has been gone for so long, while other days it seems like he should still be sitting in his spot on the couch when I walk in the room. Hard to believe it was less than a year ago when I found myself hoping and praying that he would make it to see his 15th birthday. And of course, he did...he did it for me.

I've been working on some special Pongo projects on and off over the summer. One of them was a hard cover press printed book. It turned out lovely, so I thought I would share some of the pages here...

I really do miss him terribly.

Trial for Two!

2010-09-17T18:53:00.004-04:00

Poor Indy...I have a ton of really fun pictures from our beach trip, but at the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to have them up before Christmas.

That's okay; I think she'll forgive me. Maybe. She is going to run in her first AKC trial this weekend, so hopefully that will make her happy!

It should be...interesting. We haven't done much agility-wise all summer except for playing around in the backyard. I did take her out to the club this week to run a little novice jumpers course. Oh my. We haven't run a full course in forever and it definitely showed. I had forgotten how darn *careful* she is! She ticked one bar and then started stutter stepping right before the jumps. Physically, I think she's fine, but she definitely does *not* want to knock a bar. I'm hoping that with a little trial excitement she'll forget about worrying. We'll see...I just want her to have a good time and I have no other expectations.

I have a feeling Peyton is going to be wild. But that's okay too...I'm just ready to go play with my favorite spotties!

I think Indy is trying to channel her inner Border Collie here. Creepy.

Good Times

2010-09-06T23:30:00.004-04:00

Hope everyone had a nice long holiday weekend! We took a (long overdue) trip down to Venice Beach on Saturday evening and have a lovely time!

Indy was the only spotty in attendance since Peyton seems think that the ocean (or the Gulf, in this case) is one big giant bathtub of doom. :)

Once again I was reminded of just how much fun Indy has at the beach and again, I will try very hard to not let so many months go by before our next trip. Please feel free to remind me!

Of course I took a TON of pictures and in most of them Indy looks like she on the verge of drowning, but I assure you that she just takes swimming *very seriously*.

Seriously though, how cute is she?? She cracks me up...I'm so lucky to have such entertaining spotty dogs. Look for more pictures soon!

The Great Shoe Debate

2010-09-03T19:29:00.011-04:00

It seems that a few of you need photographic proof before you can pick a side in the Kim vs. Peyton taste-in-footwear debate. And since I'm a good sport, I've decided to share pictures...even though I know Peyton has the "I'm cute and make awesome faces" advantage. :)

As a reminder, the "ugly" shoes were the ones featured in the video, which can be found here. The "bad" were the first pair of shoes I bought a few months ago and the "good" were the pair I bought at the same time as the "ugly".

In fairness, the "good" shoes were introduced immediately following the "ugly" shoes so it's possible that Peyton was either a) still in shock from the "ugly" shoes or b) thinking *any* shoe would be an improvement.

Here they are:

In my defense, I have to mention that this is not the most flattering angle for footwear photography - especially when you don't wear a size 6.

Soooooo...what do you think? Be honest; I can take it. :)

Kim's New Shoes:

Although...if you look closely at the image below you will see his mark(s) of disapproval. :)

Breakfast at HOS

2010-08-30T21:07:00.005-04:00

Since one of the most common questions I get about The Honest Kitchen's dehydrated foods is what does it *look* like, I thought I'd share some pictures!

Well, I think every formula looks a little bit different, but in it's dehydrated form it looks basically like this...

This is THK's latest formula Zeal, which will be available in late September, but we received a trial bag to test. It's a grain free fish diet and the spotties *love* it. Doesn't have a strong fishy odor at all, and look at those big chuncks of fish!

Here's what it looks like while hydrating...I usually let it sit for 5-10 minutes. This is a tad bit on the "soupy" side, but Indy didn't seem to mind.

And here's Keen, which is a little thicker than the Zeal and some of the other formulas - likely because it's made with organic oats. This was Peyton's breakfast since Indy can't have grains.

A little leftover turkey on top and ta-da! Breakfast is served. Note, you don't need to add anything to any of the formulas except for Preference, but I like to add a little extra meat or other various yummies that I might happen to have on hand.

There you have it...breakfast at the House of Spots!

If you're as nerdy about feeding your dogs as I am, you should check out one of my new favorite blogs, Countersurfer. MP is awesome and her human is hilarious. I think she must enjoy the kitchen waaaaay more than I do, but then again, I don't have any horse-riding broccoli in my fridge. :)

Cartoony Indy

2010-08-30T20:57:00.001-04:00

Poor Indy...she puts up with a lot around here. As if dealing with Peyton wasn't bad enough, she has to put up with me...and my wide angle lens.

Peanut head...

*So* embarrassing.

Big bird?

Whoa.

And almost normal...for Indy.

I just can't help myself; she really is a cartoon character! Thankfully, she still loves me...I think. :)

Fashion Police

2010-08-24T22:11:00.003-04:00

Peyton has always taken offense to certain clothing items - an occasional shirt, sometimes hats (thank you Sherri, for making sure I never forget), and most often, shoes.

Until recently, I have never been a target of his shoe snobbery. But in my attempt to find a decent pair of trail running shoes, I have obviously been making some very bad choices lately. It started last month when I came home with (in my opinion) some very cute Merrells. He HATED them. It took about a week for him to stop giving them the evil eye.

Then today I came home with two pairs of Keens. Not exactly my usual style, but they are super comfortable and I got them at a really great price. This was Peyton's reaction to the first pair (sandals)...

MAJOR dislike. The funny thing is that he doesn't seem to mind the other pair. Such a silly spotty dog...it's tough living with a member of the fashion police. :)

Indy Trip!

2010-08-21T21:13:00.003-04:00

My annual trip back to Indiana is just one month away! My dates have been finalized and it looks like I'm going to be in the Indy area from September 22-27.

I'm really looking forward to it! In addition to catching up with friends, I'll also be doing a few photo sessions...including one with two adorable young spotties. So excited to meet them! :)

Peyton is going to be one very unhappy spotty dog. This was basically his response to my news...

We Heart The Honest Kitchen

2010-08-19T21:58:00.008-04:00

As many of you already know, we are *big* Honest Kitchen fans here in spotty land. We're very excited to announce that we are now part of the Honest Kitchen Allies program! What does that mean? Well, it basically means that we get to continue spreading the word about Honest Kitchen, but we now have literature, samples, and coupons to share with our friends!

I've been feeding The Honest Kitchen dehydrated foods for over 5 years. Before that, I tried several brands of premium kibble, raw diets, and even home cooked, but none of them turned out to be the best option for us. And I understand that every pet is different and there are a number of good options when it comes to feeding so I'm just sharing our experience with The Honest Kitchen, which has been nothing but positive.

There are a lot of great reasons to love this company, but *my* top three are:

1. 100% human grade food produced in a human food facility. For real!

2. High quality ingredients including free-range chicken and hormone-free turkey.

3. Quality *and* convenience - It's super easy to prepare and is perfect for traveling! Just add warm water and in 5 minutes you're done! This is why I failed at home cooking. Betty Crocker, I am not. :)

I could go on and on, but here's the really good stuff...

1. Coupons: Click here for $2 off a 2,3, or 4 lb box of food or $5 off a 7 or 10 lb box of food redeemable online or at a store near you.

2. Samples: Please feel free to send me an e-mail at agilespots(at)aol.com if you would like a few samples. And for my local agility friends, I usually keep a few on hand, and I'll also be bringing a bunch to our upcoming SOTC agility trial in September.

3. For more goodies, you can become a fan of The Honest Kitchen on Facebook, and sign up for their newsletter online at www.thehonestkitchen.com. They often have fun contests and will occasionally offer freebies including free shipping, which is great for those of us on the other side of the country! (The Honest Kitchen is located in San Diego, CA).

And since no post is complete without pictures, Peyton was more than happy to pose with all of our Honest Kitchen samples. He says "Yum! All for me??"

But in true Peyton fashion, he couldn't resist trying to sneak off with a few. Naughty, naughty spotty. :)

As usual, Indy takes modeling very seriously. She wouldn't dare try to sneak a sample...of course, she was giving me some pretty convincing sad eyes. :)

The spotties have tried all of the Honest Kitchen foods and I like to rotate them on occasion for variety, but they are currently eating Embark (Indy can't have grains) and Keen. I'm looking forward to their newest grain-free food, Zeal, which is coming soon and made with (human grade) dehydrated fish fillets!

And for the record, we do not sell Honest Kitchen food. We do not profit from sharing the Honest Kitchen love. We do receive a discount on food, but are under no formal obligation to endorse them. We do so because we think they are an awesome company. That's all!

Thank you Honest Kitchen for letting us be a part of your Allies program!

West Palm Night Trial

2010-08-15T21:21:00.003-04:00

Hey there! Remember us? Two cute, silly spotty dogs and one not-quite-as-cute, but equally silly blonde? :)

Peyton and I headed over to West Palm Beach for a night trial this weekend and while it was hot (so-so-so miserably hot), we had a great time. I love night trials. The trial started at 6 pm both days and on Friday we were done before 10 pm and Saturday we were pulling out at 9 pm. It was a relatively small trial, but I would much rather run at night than in the morning!

Peyton was awesome! We have done pretty much zero agility training this summer so I figured that we would be a little rusty, but it seems that the only rusty one was me!

Our first run was standard and Peyton was on fire! We were having one of those runs where everything was clicking until near the end when I had a momentary loss of spacial awareness (how's that for a description?) and lost Peyton to an off-course teeter. Ahhhhhh, bummer. Totally my fault though and I felt pretty bad for letting him hang out on the teeter wondering what happened while I was searching for my brain. So I tried to finish on a happy note and then we had a big party - it was a really nice run.

In JWW, I chickened out a bit on my plan for the opening which caused a refusal since Peyton thought we were going to the weaves. The rest of the run was decent, but an obnoxious front cross on my part caused a bar.

We had a great start to our standard run on Saturday, but missed the tunnel/a-frame discrimination. That was a bit of a surprise, but I made sure to keep going this time (click for me!) and other than a bit of a delay on the table (I'm SO looking forward to the position-less table!), the rest of the run was nice.

The JWW course was pretty tough for us, but we managed to make it (somewhat awkwardly) through the opening. Of course I had to send Peyton to the wrong end of the tunnel near the end. :) My fault, again - I really struggle with long, fast lines followed by a change of direction. Oh well, something to work on!

I'm super proud of Peyton! We might have a lousy Q-rate, but it's definitely not a reflection of his performance. I don't think he could have given me much more, especially running in that kind of nasty heat and humidity. Good spotty!

We've got another month off and then our trial season will start back up in September. I'm excited! AND I think Indy will be making her AKC debut at our trial in September - probably only JWW, but it should be fun. :)

Oh, and I have some new spotty pictures to share (FINALLY) so hopefully those will be up in a few days.

Sunday Smiles

2010-07-25T18:36:00.003-04:00

I think I've probably shared pictures of Peyton's smiles (or "smarles"), but I don't think I've ever caught Indy smiling on camera...until today! When I found out that "grandma" (her favorite person in the world) was coming over, I taped Indy's surprised reaction...with lots of big smiles!

Peyton smiles all the time, but Indy just started smiling in the past few years. I think when she realized how much attention Peyton got for his silly smiles, she wanted in on the action. :)

Here's a quick little video...look at those teeth!

Love my crazy spotty dogs! Speaking of crazy...I can't believe it's almost August. This summer has been soooo busy!

Peyton and I haven't done much (agility) training-wise at all over the past month, but last week I decided to set up a challenging course that a friend sent me - not really a course to run when you haven't been practicing, but it was fun...kinda. :) We ran it with our Golden friends and I was really surprised with how well Peyton did! Granted, he was a little tired from playing beforehand, and it was HOT, but he really handled it well. I didn't expect that we would even make it to the backside of 3 without an off-course, but he nailed it on the first try. Good spotty!

Since I usually don't tape our practices, this was a nice reminder of just how far he's come. He's got such great focus and tries so hard to be right...and is just so much fun to run! It would be nice to have a little more of my "practice" Peyton in trials, but I think each time we make a little more progress...one of these days!

We hope all of our online friends are having a nice summer and staying cool!

Super Spotty!

2010-07-15T10:58:00.002-04:00

We're still trying to get caught up from our trip to Perry, but I thought I'd share a little video of some highlights of our runs. In short, Peyton was awesome! I think we probably had some of our best and most consistent runs ever in a trial.

On our first run Thursday morning, Peyton got his first Excellent JWW leg with 2nd place! That ended up being our only qualifying run, but it was a great one.

We had an awesome trip - fun runs, great friends, and one very happy spotty dog.

DACOF Recap

2010-06-28T21:23:00.004-04:00

DACOF 2010 is history! While we didn't have a repeat of last year's performance, we did have (for the most part) a really good time.

Saturday started with Open Standard - about 3 1/2 hours after I walked the course. Peyton was WILD. We had one off-course after another and even took out the double. It was a little painful. In fairness, most of our mistakes were my fault as I was totally unprepared for his um, enthusiasm. :)

FAST was next and even though I missed the walk-through, we had a decent run. Had I paid a little more attention to the rules, we would have had a really good run with 11 more points. Oops!

We finished the first day with Jumpers and even though our run wasn't terrible, it felt very frantic. He was actually pretty focused, but was running so high that I was totally flustered. Peyton doesn't bark on-course very often, but he was barking quite a bit this weekend!

For DACOF the rules are a little different than the average trial. It's based on a point system (each run starts at 100) and you lose points for faults, but can gain points for being under standard course time. You can have off-courses, missed contacts, and knocked bars, but it's very important that you complete every obstacle or you'll end up with 0 points for the run (not good). Being clean is best, but if you can't be clean then you need to be FAST to make up for lost points.

Thankfully Peyton had the speed part down and we were able to make up for a lot of lost points. I'm just hoping that I won't be paying for all of our "quick release" contacts at our next trial. :)

We had a much better day on Sunday. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling good, but I think that actually helped since I didn't have the energy to get as flustered as I was the day before. We started off with a really nice standard run with one knocked bar and one off-course that was my fault. It didn't seem like our run was that fast, but even with the off-course, we finished just 2 seconds behind the awesome little Border Collie who won.

Our jumper's run got off to a rough start - the judge was standing right in Peyton's line of sight and I think he got a little distracted and went off-course. The rest of the run was pretty good and he had to work hard to make his weave entry - good boy!

I was a little disappointed in some of our runs - had it been a regular trial, I wouldn't have cared as much, but since DACOF is a team event, there is a bit more pressure to do well. Our team ended up finishing 18th out of 48 teams, which isn't bad at all, considering we didn't contribute much on Saturday. And our other club team ended up placing 3rd, which is super awesome! We had two really great teams year and it was a lot of fun to see all of our club members do so well!

I think Peyton and I are in recovery mode - I'm still not 100% and I think he ran a few of his spots off this weekend. :) This time next week we'll be getting ready to head to Perry, Georgia for a 4 day agility trial so hopefully we'll both be ready. I'm pretty sure Peyton will be, but I'm not so sure about me!

DACOF Bound!

2010-06-24T21:58:00.003-04:00

Florida's annual DACOF competition is this weekend! This is one of my favorite events and I'm looking forward to a FUN weekend with good friends - and several that I don't get to see very often.

SOTC is sending two full teams this year, and we have a great group of dogs and handlers. It's going to be pretty hard to top last year (our team WON + Peyton was high in trial for 24" novice dogs), but no matter how we do, I'm sure we'll have a great time.

Here's my favorite run from last year. Actually it might be one of my favorites ever. :) I think DACOF was the beginning of the end of our start-line stay in trials...

And of course I can't leave Indy out - her DACOF days are over, but our 2008 FAST run is still one of my all time favorite Indy moments. :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend! If you can spare any "stay on course" or even "stay on this planet" thoughts, they are *always* appreciated. :)

Play NOW!

2010-06-16T23:42:00.007-04:00

Alert the media - Indy has actually been in a playful mood lately! I'm not quite sure what's come over her, but she actually wants to play...with Peyton!

Unfortunately Peyton has been less than impressed by Indy's advances...which go a little something like this:

I: *bark-bark-bark-bark* play with me!

P: do you hear something?

I: *bark-tap-bark-punch* play NOW play NOW!

P: la-la-la-la-la I can't hear you...

I: *bark-punch-bark-bite-bark-tackle* what are you DEAF? PLAY NOW!

P: *ouch*. mom she just hit me. help.

I: *bark-scream-bark-bite* you stupid boy - PLAY WITH ME!

P: you hate me...you like me...make up your mind you MOODY girl.

I: *bark-bark-bark-bark* whatever. GET LOST.

It's actually pretty entertaining to watch. Here's a little video of her latest attempt...

I don't know what makes me laugh more - Indy's obnoxious and demanding behavior or Peyton's casual response. :)

Catching Up!

2010-06-07T21:37:00.003-04:00

The past several weeks have been crazy-busy around here! I'm not complaining - I love what I do - but I haven't had much time to do much of anything outside of photography & design work. I'm almost close to catching up though!

To wrap-up our trial recap from last weekend - Sunday was an okay-ish day. There was a delay before our standard run and I let Peyton get a little too wound up while we were waiting...and boy, was he wound tight! He took the triple 4 times (twice backwards). It was comical...we haven't had a run like this in a while so I guess we were overdue. :)

I think we were both kind of drained by the time JWW came around so my only goals in this run were 1) to not watch the pretty spotty dog and 2) keep him out of the off-course tunnel. Goals accomplished! A few bobbles, but it was a nice, smooth, quiet run. A nice way to finish the weekend!

We might not have a great Q-rate, but I couldn't ask for a better partner and teacher. Every time we play this game, he teaches me something new...one of these days I *should* be a very good handler!

We played snooker in class last week, and despite my usual opinion of the game, we had so much fun! Peyton was ah-mazing...three challenging courses with wraps and crosses galore - he was fast, super responsive and had some really tight turns. Even though he's usually pretty consistent in class, he still surprises me with moments of brilliance - fun!

A few people have been asking about when Indy will be making her AKC debut and I'm thinking it will probably be in the fall. With my workload lately, I haven't had much time for *any* training and even though Indy could probably handle a novice JWW course just fine, I'd like to get her back in "agility" shape first. I know she would enjoy running again, although I'm not sure AKC will be her cup of tea. We'll see. :)

On a totally different note, we've been on losing end of a flea battle down here. I'm not sure about everyone else, but this has been the *worst* year for fleas and ticks! Usually we'll have a 2-week period where they come and we conquer, but for some reason they just won't go away. It's not that we have an infestation, but it only takes one flea for Peyton to have a reaction. (He currently has a lovely mix of black and pink spots.) I've tried every natural remedy that has worked in the past and I would rather not go the chemical route - any ideas?

One Year!

2010-05-30T20:30:00.003-04:00

This weekend we're celebrating an anniversary! Hard to believe, but we had our first AKC trial weekend exactly one year ago. Since then we've enjoyed a lot of ups, a few downs, and many great experiences, including 7 AKC titles. I'm so, so proud of Peyton and it's been an incredible journey so far!

On Friday we attended a match and my only goal was to attempt to work on startline stays. We had 3 runs and on the first try he broke several times before holding his stay. The next two were rock solid, but he was definitely showing some signs of stress despite lots of praise. Our first run on Saturday was FAST and let's just say that the practice did not transfer! He had a nice run though and was just a few points shy of qualifying. I've (once again) decided to scrap the stay and will likely revisit it at some point down the road. It's frustrating since he has such a great stay in practice, but I'd much rather run a happy dog than a stressed one.

After our FAST warm-up, we started with JWW and had a pretty decent run with just a few mistakes. Later our standard run started off well, but I got a little impatient and he took an off-course jump and then seemed to get pretty stressed at the weaves. I'm a little stumped...his weaves are usually the one thing I can count on, but it seems like they are partially broken at the moment. Otherwise, we had some nice moments and a few areas that still need some work. I wasn't a huge fan of the courses, but at least we didn't completely butcher them. :)

Today was another NQ day, but we had a lot of fun. Peyton seemed much happier! We started again with JWW and at one point I got stuck watching Peyton and when I turned around I realized I was sending him right into an off course tunnel - bad handler! I could have kicked myself...such a silly mistake. :) Our standard run was also pretty good, but I failed to cue a turn early enough which led to an off-course jump. Then near the end, I actually pulled him off a jump! It's funny, but I was pretty happy with that since he was so responsive. On another good note, his weaves were perfect!

And just for fun, here's our video from our first day last year...I had forgotten about the time he stopped to scream at the judge. :)

Hopefully tomorrow will be another fun day!

A Golden Weekend

2010-05-24T21:43:00.005-04:00

My house of spots turned into the house of goldens this weekend! Peyton's best friends Riley, Finn and Sophie stayed with us while their mom and dad headed out of town for a wedding. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I was pretty sure that I was going to have to peel Peyton off of the ceiling at some point. His reaction surprised me...

Friday afternoon: "LOOK MOM! The GOLDENS are HERE! The Goldens are HERE in MY HOUSE! Hey did you not notice - the Goldens are HERE!"

Saturday morning: "Mom, why are the Goldens still here (insert pout)...in MY house?"

Poor spotty boy was SO confused. It was pretty funny...at one point in the morning Finn grabbed one of his toys (wanting Peyton to play with him) and Peyton gave me one of the most pitiful, pouty looks I've ever seen. He was like "Um, mom - he's got MY toy". I really wish I had it on camera. :)

We all survived the weekend and despite Peyton's confusion, everyone got along great. He finally seemed to get settled on Saturday night and the boys played together, but it wasn't at all what I expected. I knew that the Goldens would be good, but I didn't expect Peyton to be so CALM. Here's a little video of them goofing off in the back yard...

You might notice that a certain spotty missing. Indy spent the weekend with my parents - she likes the Goldens (and generally is much more dog-friendly than Peyton), but I figured having them in HER house would blow her spotty mind. She gets out of sorts if I move a piece of furniture. Silly girl.

It was a fun weekend...although I will say that I can now really appreciate having short haired dogs. Every time Finn and Riley came in from outside I think they brought in half of my backyard with them! :)

Peyton AX!

2010-05-18T10:45:00.003-04:00

Peyton and I spent the weekend in Vero and had a great time. I'm very happy to report that on Sunday Peyton earned his AX title with a first place!

I did manage to miss our walk-through, but fortunately the course was relatively easy - there were only a few sections that were causing problems. Because I wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to be, I think I over-handled most of the course, but it worked! Maybe I need to miss walk-throughs more often? Actually, I think I just need to remember to take my time and handle every obstacle. :)

Peyton seems to really like this location and our other runs were pretty good too. We're still Q-less in JWW, but I did really like our run on Saturday. The jump-weave opening was tricky and he missed his entry, but the rest of the run was nice (except for my late, unplanned front cross after the weaves).

What a fun weekend...yay Peyton!

Trials & Ice Cream

2010-05-03T22:59:00.004-04:00

Indy says thanks for all of the birthday wishes! She had a very nice celebration at...Dairy Queen! She thought that was pretty awesome and now thinks that she should have ice cream every day. I don't think she was too happy when I told her that it wouldn't bode well for her girly figure. :)

Peyton and I had a three day local trial this weekend. Poor guy had a rough week dealing with his emotional mom, so I think it was good for him (and me) to spend the weekend with friends.

Our runs on Friday weren't too bad, but my head just wasn't in the game and my sense of direction was worse than usual. Saturday was much better though, and I think we had two of our nicest runs to date. Our standard run was lovely up until the very end when I got caught admiring my spotty dog and failed to cue a turn. What can I say...he's cute!

The jumpers course was interesting. I decided to handle with all rear crosses - not my first choice, but I thought it was the best option for us. My plan worked nicely although it did require a lot of patience on my part. Unfortunately I had a very blonde moment near the end and sent him into the wrong end of the tunnel. Gah!

On Sunday we had an early start (which is always a little dangerous for this non-morning person), and I think I must have been half asleep. Despite my bad handling, Peyton was a good boy and pretty much went where I sent him. I did manage to get in his way on two front crosses which caused knocked bars...I must be either very spatially challenged or temporarily confuse Peyton for a Sheltie.

For some unknown reason Peyton was extra stressy before our jumper's run, which in turn made me really stressy. I'm surprised that this run wasn't a complete disaster and actually, he saved me in a couple spots. Good boy...

Overall, Peyton was super responsive this weekend. He really was paying attention to me, even when I was giving bad directions. He also seems to be handling the stress/anxiety much better, although I'm still trying to figure out how to keep him happy in the gate area. That's still very much a work in progress.

It was a (much needed) good weekend.

Another Birthday!

2010-05-01T08:07:00.000-04:00

Another spotty birthday today - Indy is SIX! I can't believe it...where does the time go?

I came across these pictures my mom took the day we brought Indy home. Pongo was less than impressed, but he was a good sport, as usual.

Help mom...there's a little spotted rat on my tail!

La-la-la...I don't see you.

Hmmph. She's okay, I guess.

Happy birthday Indy!

Thank You

2010-04-29T17:22:00.005-04:00

First, a big thank you for all of the thoughts and kind words about Pongo's passing. I haven't been able to respond to everyone (I honestly just haven't had the heart, nor the words), but please know that I appreciate all of you.

Obviously I've know for a while that the time was coming, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for how difficult this would be. It just seems so wrong to wake up and not see his face every morning.

Pongo was my original spotty. He was with me through so many life changing moments - college, graduation, my first real job, an apartment fire, a few heartbreaks, my move to Florida, etc., etc. Aside from my parents, he's been the only living reminder here of my life back in Indy. Of course, I still have so many wonderful memories, but I can't help but to feel like such an important chapter of my life has suddenly ended.

Peyton and Indy seem to be doing just fine...they probably knew what was happening before I did. I find it very ironic that Pongo passed on the date I officially named as Peyton's birthday. A part of me wonders if it was a gentle little reminder that he was and would always be the very first. And of course, I will think of him every time I write down that date on Peyton's trial entries. :)

I know in my heart that he is in a better place and free from the old, tired body that slowed him down over the past few years. I can picture him running on an endless beach and stopping to mark on every single chair in sight. Despite my objections, he loved to do that...although I was mortified the one time someone was actually sitting in one of those chairs...oops! I also hope that he has an endless supply of bread, pizza, and toilet paper (just a few of his favorites)...without ever feeling full nor hungry.

One of these days I'll be able do a proper tribute to my special boy. But in the meantime, thank you again for thinking of us.

Pongo 1994 - 4/24/2010

2010-04-25T12:48:00.007-04:00

Pongo passed away in my arms yesterday evening.

He didn't give me the chance to make that painful decision I've been agonizing over for so long. I should have known...that was just the kind of friend that he always was to me. I will be forever grateful.

Goodbye my dear Pongo, our house of spots will never be the same without you.

Happy Birthday!

2010-04-24T11:42:00.002-04:00

Guess who turns four today?

Incredible Weekend

2010-04-18T10:24:00.005-04:00

This weekend we competed in the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge Eastern Regionals! We were entered in both the large dog agility and the 30 weave up and back competition. Since this was our first time competing at this event, I honestly didn't know what to expect, but thought it would be fun, something a little different, and hopefully a good experience for Peyton.

Friday was a practice day and we were given two opportunities to run the course. I expected that Peyton would be pretty amped (understatement), but I wasn't really prepared for how much noise there would be. Between the music, the crowd, and the announcer, it was so loud...verbals were not really an option. Despite all of the distractions, Peyton had a blast and clearly wanted to make the most of his practice time by taking every off-course jump out there. Our second run was considerably better, although I was still a little rattled and had a hard time concentrating. Just for laughs, here's our practice video:

After a little break, we had practice for the weave pole challenge. The first run was timed and would determine who we would run against during the competition. Since we've never attempted 30 weaves, I wasn't sure what to expect, but Peyton didn't do too bad. He struggled a little bit with the spacing (20") and he popped out a few times where there was a break in the weaves, but once I figured out that I needed to stay with him and not push so hard, he did much better.

On Saturday, we had two chances to run the course and we ran last in the large dog group. Peyton had a great run going until I sent him off-course at the second set of weaves. He took the dogwalk and when the crowd started laughing I think he got a little spooked and bailed. I hesitated for a bit because I wanted to make sure he wasn't hurt, but he was fine and finished the course nicely.

For our second attempt, I decided to try to handle this section from the other side of the jump before the weaves, but I was a little hesitant in my handling and he took an off-course jump and then dropped a bar when I got in his way trying to get back on track. The rest of the course was great - it was just that one section that had us stumped, and since there was only one dog who ran clean in two rounds, at least we weren't the only ones!

The weave pole challenge was held a little later and we had to run against the top seeded dog, a Border Collie named Indy (isn't that funny?). I didn't have any expectations of being able to keep up with them, but after she missed the entry coming back, we actually managed to gain the lead for a few poles. Peyton did great. He got a little distracted near the end and skipped a pole and when I pulled him around to put him back in, he ran really wide over to Indy's side, but came right back and we finished the last few poles. I was super proud of him...I don't think he could have gone much faster and coming back, he had to weave right toward a photographer and a camera man, so I don't blame him at all for being distracted!

Overall, we had a great time and I really couldn't be more pleased with how well Peyton did! He's never had to run in front of a crowd like that and he handled all of the cameras and distractions much better than I did. I'll admit to being just a little intimidated! It was a really great experience for both of us, and I'm sure that it was a big boost for his confidence.

The event itself was very well organized and everyone involved was very nice and supportive. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who gets a chance to attend. We really did have a lot of fun! I doubt that we'll make the cut for TV, but the event will air nationwide sometime in June, I think.

Even though our runs were less than perfect, I had so many people stop to tell me how much they loved watching Peyton and that he was their favorite. He's definitely a crowd pleaser. :)

I came across this very cool video which features one of Peyton's runs and also a dock diving Dal named Lance who took 3rd place. I only got to see one of his jumps, but he was awesome. Hooray for spotty dogs!

Weekend Smiles

2010-04-05T21:57:00.004-04:00

The spotties and I had a great weekend! On Friday evening we took Indy to the dog beach at Ft. Desoto and she had a BLAST. I think these pictures pretty much say it all...

Ah, these images make me *SMILE*. I just love seeing her so happy! :)

On Sunday evening Peyton got to come with me out to the club where I photographed his best friends, Riley and Finn. He wasn't very happy about hanging out in the car while the Goldens modeled, but he did have a great time playing with them when we were done.

Peyton says Goldens taste like chicken...yum!

*LOVE*

And finally, a Golden sandwich!

Pongo didn't get to go anywhere fun this weekend, but he did get some marshmallow bunnies for Easter, which he loves. And all three spotties were spared the humiliation of posing with bunny ears this year...lucky them!

We hope all of our friends had a great weekend!

Day 2 - SOTC Trial

2010-03-28T20:03:00.003-04:00

I started off this morning with a happy and mostly focused spotty dog, and finished the morning with an agitated and unfocused spotty dog. All in a matter of hours...how does that happen?

Despite me not doing much of anything in the way of handling, Peyton had a pretty nice Standard run. Our only mistake was when he took the wrong end of the tunnel and that was because I pretty much sent him there. He was very flakey on the contacts today, but I'm not sure how much of that was because of me. I think this goes down as my most casual start ever, but hey - it worked.

Just a few hours later we ran in JWW and I found myself with a totally different spotty dog. He seemed fine going into the ring, but once we started moving he was clearly agitated - barking, knocking bars, running around jumps. Not a happy camper. After our run he seemed fine again...I have no idea what sets him off sometimes, but I really wish he could tell me!

I still think there's a good chance that he's not 100%. His weaves, especially, look a little off to me, so it's possible that he's just a little sore and cranky. I guess I can relate - I wasn't feeling that great today either. :)

We've got a light trial schedule for the next 6 months so I think it will be good to take some time off and maybe find the time for some real training (which has been lacking). And hopefully I'll have some new spotty pictures sometime soon...they have all been very neglected lately by my camera!

SOTC Trial - OF!

2010-03-27T20:07:00.003-04:00

Today started off on a good note with a nice Open FAST run with a 1st place Q for Peyton's OF title! I didn't plan on doing the a-frame twice, but hey it's FAST.

Excellent Standard came MANY hours later and we had a few little mistakes, but some nice moments and I was super happy with his contacts. I'm a little concerned about his weaves though...he's been running past them lately in trials which is very unusual for him. I can't think of anything specific that has happened to cause avoidance, so I'm wondering if he might be hurting a little somewhere. It's possible that he's just not *thinking*, but something seems a bit off. I have him checked out adjusted by my vet/chiro regularly, but I'll probably try to get him looked at this week, just in case.

It was a long day and we finished up with Excellent JWW around 6:30 pm. This was just an ugly, ugly course. I had a better plan in mind for the opening, but unfortunately, was a bit of a weenie in the execution. The second half was pretty good and he had no problems with the weaves, although I was managing them a bit more than usual.

Tomorrow is another early morning...too bad trials can't start at 5 *PM*...that would be much more up our alley! :)

Adventures in Winter Park

2010-03-23T10:35:00.005-04:00

Our USDAA trial this weekend was in Winter Park, and for those of you not familiar, it's on the north side of Orlando, which for us meant a nice *cough* trip down I-4 on Friday afternoon. For any of you who have spent any time driving on I-4 in the Orlando area, you can appreciate my sarcasm. The drive was actually relatively painless until we made it to the downtown area...then with about 10 miles to go, I-4 became a parking lot. And of course, I had one too many Diet Cokes while driving. And of course, I was already running little late. Those last 10 miles were slow and painful! We finally made it to the trial site just in time to walk Jumpers. Considering I was frazzled and Peyton was um, refreshed after 2 1/2 hours of sleeping in the car, we didn't do too bad and only had one knocked bar. He was definitely a little overstimulated though, and unfortunately that seemed to be the trend for the weekend.

We then had several hours to wait and I spent some time walking around trying to get Peyton to relax a little bit, which wasn't easy. This was a big trial and there was a lot going on! Our next run was Performance Grand Prix and I think this was probably my favorite run of the weekend. By that time, a lot of people had left so there wasn't a whole lot to worry about. Peyton missed a jump after the chute, but otherwise he did great! Getting a nice turn out of the chute is still a challenge for us in trials and I just had way too much speed going in - I don't think he even saw the jump.

Poor Peyton was slipping quite a bit during this run and finished with a nice green spot on his rear. He seemed to struggle quite a bit with the surface this weekend which was surprising since the grass was similar to what we train on. Next up was gamblers and after a wild start, we had a pretty nice run for a 1st place Q and his title. Here's a video of jumpers/gamblers (we didn't get many runs on tape this weekend)...

It was a late night and I think we made it back to the hotel around 10 pm. Unfortunately we had some obnoxious neighbors and managed to sleep maybe 3 1/2 hours that night. Needless to say, Saturday was a little rough.

We started with gamblers first thing in the morning and had a decent qualifying run, but the rest of the day wasn't the best. Because we were at a sports park, there were softball games behind where we were crated and on the other side of the field there were lacrosse games. There were lots of spectators and kids everywhere...I think it was just a little too much going on and while Peyton was handling it all really well, he was clearly a little stressed during our runs. He didn't do anything terrible, but he just wasn't focused.

Sunday was much better crowd-wise and Peyton finally started to relax. We started with snooker (what an evil way to start the day!) and despite our crazy run, I think we both had a lot of fun. Unfortunately I didn't get it on tape! Our standard run was also better, but Peyton got called on the up side of the dogwalk (which was the second obstacle) and I spent the rest of the run thinking about how dumb I think up contacts are and didn't really do much handling. Yes, I need to work on *my* focus too. :) Because it looked like it was going to rain, we called it a weekend and skipped jumpers to head home early.

Overall, it was a fun weekend and Peyton definitely got a lot of experience hanging out in a really stimulating environment. We were around a lot of kids, which in the past would have been enough to cause a total meltdown, but Peyton handled it really well. We were also approached several times by large groups of people who wanted to meet him. Can't tell you how many times I heard "look, a Dalmatian!" this weekend. Even though I don't think Peyton was quite ready this type of environment, I think that with a little more time and experience, he'll be more comfortable. Good spotty boy!

Snookered

2010-03-21T23:39:00.005-04:00

For those of you not familiar with the agility game snooker, here's a quick little overview. First, there's an opening and a closing sequence. In the opening you need to do a red jump followed by numbered obstacle, then you need to do a (different) red then a number, and finally another (different) red, and then another numbered obstacle. There are lots of silly little rules you need to remember like you can't take two reds back to back and you can't take two obstacles back to back unless they are grouped in the same numbered sequence, and some obstacles you can only take in one direction and once you take a red you can't take it again, and you have to accumulate a certain amount of points to qualify, and and and...get the drift? Oh, and if you mess up, you hear the whistle of snooker doom and you're done.

Anyway, this was my plan for the opening of this morning's course...looks pretty smooth, right?

Well, this is pretty close to what we ended up with...

Whoa. This is why me and snooker are not friends.

We actually had made it through the opening until Peyton took the #3 jump backwards (for zero points) and instead of starting the closing I sent Peyton to the #2 tunnel twice. Oops. We heard the whistle of doom.

At least we made it a little further than yesterday when we were whistled off after taking one red and then two tunnels in a row. :)

While I'm not really a snooker fan (yet), I'll admit that I really enjoy watching good snooker teams run. They can usually manage to come up with and execute a good strategy without looking like they are a) drunk and/or b) crazy. This morning I'm pretty sure I ended up looking like both.

Overall, we had a good time at the trial this weekend...videos and recap coming soon.

DTCSP Day 3

2010-03-14T18:34:00.003-04:00

Well, we finished our weekend with two more NQ's...at least I can say we were consistent! The Standard course today was definitely do-able, but I was a little bit behind coming out of the tunnel and I think I was trying to get his head, but for some (unknown) reason I was using my outside arm, which he read as a rear cross on the flat. Don't ask me what I was thinking, but this is why I videotape my runs...otherwise I would have no clue what I do wrong! I then pushed him a little too hard after the chute and he missed his weave entry. I decided to keep going, but I think he knew he made a mistake and then pulled out early. Not a big deal. His contacts were good today and even though he came off the dogwalk a bit, I had made a big lateral move to get in a front cross before the a-frame, so I was just happy he decided to stop today.

Our jumpers run was becoming a bit of a mess so I decided to just try and keep moving so Peyton wouldn't get frustrated - we kinda made up our own version of this course. Peyton thought it was a pretty good plan. :)

I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed with our runs this weekend. I think for the most part Peyton did awesome, but I felt like the old saying "great dog; shame about the handler" applied to me. :) Granted, Peyton is not the easiest dog to run, but he does try really hard to go where I tell him to. I just need to keep reminding myself that we're still learning how to run together as a team and it's going to take time. Especially since I've been making some adjustments to my handling approach lately...I need to be a little more...patient.

On a good note, I do think on the whole we handled some really tricky areas pretty well. There were a few courses that seemed pretty choppy and demotivating and we made it through them without a ton of off-courses, so that's a good thing! I am glad that I made a late decision to run in USDAA next weekend and not the AKC trial that I was originally planning. We'll have a few more runs and hopefully a few more opportunities for *handler* reinforcement. Peyton gets cookies after every run no matter what he does, but I want a clean run! I even entered snooker, which I generally detest, but will try very hard to have fun with it. :)

DTCSP Day 2

2010-03-13T17:22:00.004-05:00

We started with Standard and Peyton decided after having really nice contacts yesterday that we needed a running dogwalk today! I should have probably just said "go weave" at that point, but I was fussing at him for not stopping and I pulled him off the weaves. The rest of the run was pretty nice except for a few blonde moments. I didn't notice until I watched the video, but Peyton got called on the teeter. That's a first...not sure if it was for the up or down contact (not that it really mattered, but still).

As for jumpers...ahhhh we were SO CLOSE until the very end with ONE jump left and I found myself out of place and rushed and I sent him off-course. This was a really tough course, but I just could have kicked myself. Especially since we had just worked on this kind of rear cross/wrap this week! So much for all that *patience* I had yesterday. :)

One more day! At this point I'm really not chasing "Q's", but it would be nice if we could make it through a course without such silly little mistakes. Spotty toes crossed!

DTCSP Day 1

2010-03-12T19:11:00.003-05:00

It was another less than beautiful day for trialing in (once) sunny Florida! It's supposed to clear up, but today was rainy and a little on the chilly side. I think we're about due for some sunshine!

Today was an okay day for us...our runs were a little wild and less than pretty, but I think I made some progress on the handling front. Had a few "duh" moments too, but that's fairly common!

First up was JWW and this was not a Peyton friendly course at all...lots of off-course opportunities all over the place. I decided to try a rear cross at the start which didn't work (surprise). I think I've decided that next time we see this type of opening I'm just going to try *not* moving at all and see how far Peyton gets before he realizes I'm not there. :) Of course the best option would be to have a start-line stay, but at this point I'm still just trying to get him (somewhat) calm going in the ring. Easier said than done.

On a good note, I was for the most part *very patient* during this run and was able to keep him moving in the right direction except for the one time when I wasn't so patient. Near the end we had a little bobble when the tunnel called his name on his way to a nice weave entry. And apparently I missed a very hilarious look on Peyton's face when this happened. :)

Our standard run got off to a rocky start, but had a nice ending. I didn't think about how fast Peyton blasts out of the chute and should have gotten his head, but instead we had an off-course. Then we had a lovely entry to the weaves which I think I pulled him out of marking it, followed by another (yee-haw) three off-course jumps. But I was really happy with everything after the table as that was a tricky section for dogs that often hear tunnel fairies call their name.

We have an early start tomorrow as big dogs run first. Let's hope I can manage to be somewhat awake!

On the Ball!

2010-03-08T20:03:00.003-05:00

I think we're starting to get the hang of this ball work! I thought I'd share a couple of pictures...Peyton says this is *serious* exercise.

(Actually I think he was just a little annoyed that I was taking pictures and not playing with him...he thinks this ball stuff is FUN!)

You can learn more about the "Get on the Ball Two" DVD by Dr. Debbie Gross Saunders on her Wizard of Paws website or Clean Run. And hopefully after a few weeks or so, we can give a better review...so far, so good though!

Friday Trial

2010-03-07T09:08:00.005-05:00

We had an AKC trial on Friday and even though it was a NQ day, Peyton ran very well! We started with Standard and the opening was really tough for us, but after several extra jumps, the rest of the run was lovely. Only two 24" dogs and one 20" dog qualified on this course so we weren't alone. Peyton held all of his contacts and he let me get a nice lead out on the table. Good spotty!

The JWW course also had a tricky opening, but by the time we ran I wasn't feeling great and didn't do much in the way of handling so we had a couple of off-courses. Peyton didn't seem to mind though and he had his usual fun time. :)

Yesterday I spent the afternoon helping to get our club equipment ready for our upcoming trial. By the time we were done, I was sore, looking very lobster-ish, and sporting chunks of yellow paint in my hair. Nice! Today I feel like I got ran over by a truck. I always forget that painting can be quite the workout!

I briefly introduced Peyton and Indy to our new peanut therapy ball last night. Peyton thinks it might be one of the coolest new games ever...it's going to take some work on my part to learn how to manage the bouncing spotty on the bouncing ball, but I think it's going to be a great workout for him (or rather for both of us?). And Indy managed to shock me with her eagerness to interact with the ball. She's not a fan of moving objects, but she was happy to put her front feet on the ball and hopefully with time, she'll be comfortable hopping on.

It's been a very busy weekend and the rest of March is looking about the same. Lot's of fun stuff planned, but not much down time. I'm thinking April might need to be a recovery month!

Spotty Randomness

2010-03-03T18:56:00.004-05:00

Wow, can you believe it's March already?! These past few months have been so busy that I haven't had much time for updates, but I thought I'd share some random spotty happenings.

On Monday night I decided to drop in one of our classes out at the club. Usually I run Peyton in one of advanced classes on Tuesday or Thursday after I teach, but since this session I'm teaching 2 classes each night, it makes for a really long evening if I stay. Not to mention that Peyton requires a little more energy than I usually have at that time!

The Monday class started off okay, but then we got stuck on a little sequence that really shouldn't have been that hard, but for whatever reason, we just couldn't make it work. Because no post is complete without a picture, I've included a little course map below. (Not really to scale, but should give you a good idea).

Basically what I wanted to do was send to 2 and then recall over 3 to the weaves. Peyton, however, was convinced that we were doing the jump after the tire and the only way he was reading the turn was if I ran right up to 2, decelerated, and then moved to 3. But that option put me behind and I was determined to make the other option work. Not such a brilliant idea, but that's obviously a weak spot for us so I wanted to work on it.

On attempt #??, I ran a little deeper to 2 and thought for sure I was going to make it well past 3, but Peyton cut me off thinking we were going to the a-frame and I tripped over him and crashed so hard I think my head rattled. Not graceful. At all. Ouch. :)

Ok, so maybe this was a good reminder that repeating something over and over and over isn't a good option for us. Lesson learned. Poor Peyton was trying so hard though...he really is good for putting up with me.

On other spotty notes, Indy is feeling much better and is back to her bratty self after a period of being "off" (and extra cranky, I might add). I thought initially that she was sore in her lower back area, but after a few adjustments, she still wasn't right. Turns out she had a bladder infection! She really didn't have any of the usual symptoms so I was surprised. I'll need to keep an eye on her and maybe even have x-rays done to check for stones, but for now she seems to be feeling great.

Pongo is doing about the same. He is still getting around okay, but every day seems to be a little more of a struggle. :(

I just ordered "Get on the Ball 2" and a peanut therapy ball - I've been wanting to do some more conditioning work and thought like this would be a good option. Any of my friends do ball work with their pups? I'm thinking it will be entertaining, at least!

And finally, I thought I would do one last push for Johann's shelter (as part of her Holiday Giveaway). If you would like to make a little donation, you can click on the widget below or go here: www.firstgiving.com/johannthedog. Thanks!

Cookies!

2010-02-25T23:34:00.005-05:00

It's probably not a big surprise, but over here in spotty land, we are big fans of cookies. I should probably emphasize the word "big" since I'm pretty sure that my jeans have gotten a little more "fitted" over the past few months due to some chilly weather cookie indulging (err, overindulging).

Given our cookie love, we were super excited to find out that we won some homemade cookies from our Blogger friend Susan (aka Oz Girl)! Not only did I get some very yummy individually wrapped "I Heart You" cookies, but we also received a bunch of all-natural homemade doggie cookies that I know the spotties will love.

Check out this collection of cookie goodness! (Oh, and there were two full bags of heart cookies, but it seems a few of them um, disappeared.) :)

Peyton says, "I know those are MINE MINE MINE!" (naughty spotty.)

Susan, thank you again for the wonderful cookies! And for my friends who now have cookie envy, be sure to check out "The Lazy G Ranch" blog and online store here.

Happy Camper

2010-02-20T12:43:00.004-05:00

'Tis the season for agility camps and seminars here in Florida! Earlier this month I audited Karen H and Ann B's handling camp in Sarasota. I would have loved a working spot, but since I wasn't sure if Peyton would be ready (and since I have yet to win the agility lottery), I think auditing was a good choice. I always learn a lot from watching other handlers and as usual, there were a lot of great working teams this year.

I did make a late decision to join a one day mini camp with Linda M and Wendy P last Monday. I was a little worried that it might be a little too much for Peyton, but once again he proved me wrong and was a super star spotty dog. He was a little wound up in the morning which made collection exercises a tad bit challenging, but otherwise he was happy to work all day, even with lots of stopping and starting over to work on his handler, who was just a little challenged. I can honestly say that he gave me everything he had all day and showed almost as much enthusiasm at the end of the day as when we started. So so proud of him!

Lots of "ah-ha" moments this month and I took away a bunch of new thoughts and ideas for our training. It seems like our biggest challenge at the moment is transitions. While I understand how to use acceleration and deceleration to cue a turn, I struggle with timing and coordination (or my lack of). I think once I manage to figure it all out, it will make a huge difference in our runs.

We've got the next few weekends off and then will have a busy trial schedule in March. Then things will slow down again once the weather warms up (if it ever does...I'm beginning to wonder!).

Drumroll Please...

2010-02-14T22:40:00.000-05:00

We have some winners in our giveaway! But first, a picture of Peyton playing the role of The Bachelor in a rose ceremony. Sorry spotty girls, he only has one rose!

Ok, back to our winners...the first number is 5...which belongs to achieve1dream!

And the second number is 2...which is Sherri!

Yay winners! Please send me your mailing address to agilespots(at)aol.com and I will get your prizes out this week. Thanks to everyone who participated...we like having giveaways!

And thanks again for your donations to The Southside Animal Shelter in Indianapolis. Much appreciated!

Spotty Love

2010-02-14T19:33:00.003-05:00

The spotties send Valentine's Day wishes to all of their friends!

Indy, as usual, is less than amused..."stoopid Hallmark holiday - bleh."

Peyton gives his "I'm the saddest, most unloved, spotty dog on the planet" looks...

And Pongo cracks me up with his airplane ears. With his skinny little face, he reminds me of a mouse these days...a very cute little mouse, of course.