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!

Splash Dogs!

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!

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?

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!