Happy Derby Day!!

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!

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. :)

Happy 1/2 Birthday Derby!

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!

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!

Happy Birthday!

Guess who turns four today?

Happy Birthday Pongo!

Today we celebrated Pongo's 15th birthday! First we took a little trip to Wendy's for a hamburger and then we headed to Dairy Queen for some ice cream! Needless to say, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to celebrate this special day. Although the past few weeks have been a reminder that we really need to celebrate *every* day.

Pongo agrees...and he thinks we should celebrate tomorrow with pizza. :)

Ice cream definitely makes Pongo smile...

I think this might be the canine equivalent of brain freeze!

Another Birthday!

Today my crazy little spotted girl is 5 years old! And how are we celebrating?? A trip up to Ocala for the first NADAC night trial of the season! I'm not sure her idea of a great birthday party is a night of trialing followed by a hotel stay with her bratty brother Peyton, but hopefully we'll all have a fun time. :)

Here's Indy when we found her at Animal Services in Sarasota - she's around 8 weeks here and was giving us our first dose of "Inditude"!



Happy birthday to my very special spotty girl! First dog on the line at 8 pm tonight - wish us luck! :)

Party Pictures

Did someone say party!?!?



Zoing! A new ball!



Peanut butter eyes...



Yuuuuuuuuuumy!



Peanut butter kinda makes my tongue fall out...



Moooooore!



Urp.

Peanut Butter Fun

Peyton's birthday treat was frozen yogurt with some peanut butter. Really the PB was for me...I *love* me some PB faces! He thought it was all very yummy, but says that he really wanted a cake like his friend Tess got for her birthday. *Sigh* doesn't it stink when another dog-mom is cooler than you? :)

Anyway, here are a couple PB faces - I've got some more that I'll share later. Today was bath day for the spotties (much to Peyton's dismay) and I'm exhausted!





(That was Peyton's snake imitation!)

Mad Spotty Dog

Peyton is really upset that his birthday is over! He thinks birthday parties should last forever - especially when presents and peanut butter are involved...

Happy Birthday Peyton!

Hard to believe, but today we're celebrating Peyton's third birthday! We really don't know the exact date he was born, but since I'm all about easy dates to remember, I chose 4/24/06 as the (somewhat) official date. :)

Hopefully we're now well beyond the terrible twos and can look forward to some terrific threes! Here are a few of my favorite puppy pics of the little spotted monkey with his big sister Indy...





Awww, aren't they cuuuute!? The spotties will be partying tonight! :)

Birthday Wishes!

The spotties and I would like to wish my dad a very happy birthday today...Peyton says "I want cake!!" :)

Pizza Party!

Well I'm a little behind, but Pongo had his birthday pizza party this Sunday. For the record, none of my guys ever get to eat pizza - generally they have very healthy diets. But since this was Pongo's 14th birthday, we thought he deserved something special. :)

Needless to say, he was very excited...



And we even got a little bit of a funny smile...



And then the bug eyes came out!



Pongo says "yuuuuumy!"



Pizza must give the spotties crazy eyes...



Peyton says "but what about me??"



"I want pizza too...puleeeeeze!"



Poor Peyton was very disappointed - no pizza for him.



Pongo may be slowing down a bit these days, but he sure can gobble up pizza - and anything else food related for that matter! He really is my special boy and I can only hope that we can celebrate several more birthdays together. :)

Happy Birthday!

The spotties are celebrating a very special birthday! Today my mom turns 60 years young - Happy Birthday from your favorite spotty granddogs!