Spotty who?

Breaks, Birthdays and Bubblewrap

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. :)

Yay Indy!

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!

Pupdates!

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.

The Drawing Board

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. :)

Merry Christmas!

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

Beach Bums

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

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!

Meet Derby!

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!

Halloween-ish

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!

Trial for Two!

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

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!

Cartoony Indy

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. :)

Sunday Smiles

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!

DACOF Bound!

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!

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. :)

Trials & Ice Cream

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!

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!

Weekend Smiles

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!

Friday Trial

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!