Mar 31.  Kodiak went to the vet today.  He's really not feeling well, but the workup showed nothing.  He's 14 1/2, so I think his age has caught up with him finally.

Mar 30.  Nickie Polson inspired a contest: Name the ACD.  Roxy and Annie's RN pins (ordered off eBay) came in today.  They now have a place of honor on the training bags.

Mar 26-27.  This weekend was an AKC trial in Monroe.  It's "only" about 120 miles, so we commuted to it, driving to and from each day.

I'd like to say that Roxy got her NA and/or NAJ at this trial, but I can't.  She had some nice half-runs, and even a good 2/3-run, but nothing that worked the whole time we were out there.  Both the A-frame and the weave pole performances seem to have disappeared. 

The A-frame skins came last week, so we spent Sunday evening putting them on the old aluminum frame.  I also made spikes for stick-in-the-ground weave poles, figuring that we would start with offset weaves again until she has figured out how to do them.

She let me do a backcross in Novice JWW and looked smooth as glass, so I was happy about that. 

Rebecca Elder didn't realize that she had been featured in the Annual Swimsuit Issue of the RoxyLog.  Filled with either a) anger or b) gratitude, she sent along a picture of "Jim" (actually TwoGun, now called "Celt") and "Ingrid" (actually Posey) from Kit's litter.  See the whole sordid story at the WayOut Page.

Mar 23.

Roxy and Annie Get RN Pins

"Jim" and "Ingrid" Sure Do Look Cute Together (photo: Maja Young)

What's Next?

All Right, All Right, Dad.  Get Off My Back.  Jeez.

A Study in Contrasts: How to Do the A-Frame; How Not to Do the Dog Walk

Sardines at Kodie's Junction

Dylan Gets a Starters Gamblers Title

Dylan Twists Himself Into Funny Shapes

Sister Tender Wins Big

Roxy, I Think I Love You

Air Finn

Dylan Climbs and Sings

Roxy's Rear, March 2 2005 edition

Mar 18-20.  Got up at 4 o'clock (!) Friday morning to drive down to Kiln for another USDAA agility trial.  Friday was not much to write home about, either weather-wise or agility-wise.  Saturday was a much nicer day, and Roxy surprised me with a Starters Gamblers leg, her first.  So after six months, we have one leg in each of two games: Gamblers and Snooker.  That makes us 2/7 AD.  Sunday, I came close to another Gamblers leg but messed up the approach to the Joker and so we didn't make it.  We had some nice runs over the long weekend, even though it didn't click.  Roxy's A-frame difficulties appeared, then disappeared after I followed Rosemary's advice to stay closer, then appeared again.  We'll go back to retraining the A-frame, but I knew that already.  The weave poles are giving her problems, too.  Both of these things are not happening much in practice, so it will just take a lot more work, I suppose.

The biggest news from the weekend is Dylan's third and final leg on his Starters Gamblers (SG) title.  He got his SG even though he blew his dog walk contacts not once, but twice.  However, Rosemary kept with him, got the points she needed in the opening, and then smoothly took him into a slick Joker (same one we missed just after Dylan ran).   They ended up in third place, only one point behind the first-place dog.

The ever-cool Tracey Roth was written up in the Baton Rouge paper.  She got her AD, too, but I forgot to note which dog it was, so maybe she will read this and send us an email with a picture or something.  We think it was Misty.

(After reading this, the ever-cool Tracey Roth wrought: "Yes, it was Misty to FINALLY pull that elusive Gamblers leg on Sunday for her AD...We've been chasing that Gamblers leg since they changed the rules to require it.  She's made Master Jumpers and Master Snooker already...")

On the way home, we stopped at Kodie's Junction just north of downtown Kiln and bought Dylan a can of sardines.  He had to share one of the sardines with his siblings, since Roxy got her leg and Annie is still enjoying her retirement.

Mar 16.  After failing yet another Gross Anatomy exam, what better way to celebrate than with a wet, misty, cold-as-hell agility practice?  I tell you, there's nothing better than that.  Temporarily jacked the A-frame up to 6'3" to see if Roxy would hold onto her rock-back descent.  Amazingly, she did.  So I go into the long weekend with good feelings about that, but not-so-good feelings about having to wake up at 4 am to drive down there.  On the plus side, the weather should be nice.

Roxy seems to be out of heat, for sure.  Just in time.

Last time, her heat lasted 18 days, same as this time.  She was in heat from Aug 2 to Aug 20, according to the RoxyLog, and this time from about Feb 25 to Mar 15.  That puts 29 1/2 weeks between cycles, which makes her due from Sep 21 to Oct 9. 

Mar 13.  Now that Roxy is almost out of heat, Kodiak (never the sharpest tool in the shed) seems to have discovered that She Smells Great.  He is following her around acting the lovesick fool.  Of course, now she wants to have little to do with him.

Meanwhile, Roxy's sister Tender (Hit N Heel Cowgirl Tuff N Tender PT), owned by Steve and Julie Waltenburg, is cleaning up at the conformation shows.  Julie sent along a win photo — they both look great. 

Mar 12.  A good day to play Boomer Ball. Rosemary took a video.

Mar 6.  It was a beautiful spring day here, and the family was all together again, so we decided to head out to The Dog Wash for some practice.  Roxy's A-frame performance finally broke down at 64", so we will drop it a notch back and work with it some there.  Dylan looked great on the tunnel-weave combo, and Annie and I did some random heeling and footwork for Rally-O!

I had the Alley-Oop out for Annie to do go-outs, so I decided on a whim to show Roxy some go-outs too.  She was okay on the "there's cheese on this thing" part, but she doesn't have enough training to do any kind of turn and sit, even with me standing right there.  Another thing to work on.  One day I need to go back to dumbbell training too; we never really mastered the hold.

We also did some work on sit-stays and stands.  The sit-stays are coming along, maybe 5 seconds at 8 feet; the stand still needs a lot of work.  Her heeling, though, is phenomenal.

Mar 5.  Dylan and Rosemary came home from Baton Rouge today with another Starters Relay leg on Dylan.  They came close in Gamblers (he just needs the one leg for his title) but no dice.  That means when Roxy finally gets her vulva packed back into her perineum, she can run Pairs with him still.  Maybe they will get a leg together.

The picture at right probably requires a little explanation.  Dylan has a "thing" where he likes to get up on my lap while I am working at my computer.  I'll be tip-tapping away, and he will sit to the left of my chair (never right, always left) and start barking.  That means he wants to get up.  Sometimes he just sits on my lap and gets love; sometimes he is looking for more so he puts his front feet on my chest and howls.  This was one of those times, probably because he had been away.  Rosemary grabbed the camera and another picture in the RoxyLog is born.

Those of you who know me well know that my iPod is my most treasured (inanimate) possession.  As a married man, this information is of no use to me, but I was amused by the new uses people find for their iPods. 

Dear Sister Thorn,

Oh, how I remember the many happy hours we played together, our dear mother Twist watching, in that lovely house with no rain.  Now the cruel man has taken me to this godforsaken swamp where I am reduced to eating dirt and having to wear these awful stinky human diapers.

I really need your help.  This is my first "real" heat cycle and my discharge is almost finished.  Any day now, I will NEED to be bred.  The boys in this house are all STUPID.  My people say that Kodiak has "experience" but I don't think he likes me that much and every time they say "experience" they laugh.  I don't see what's funny about that.  Annie says Kodiak bred her but that it wasn't much fun and then no puppies came out of it.  Dylan is a great playmate, and he and I fight over toys and play bitey-face all the time, but he keeps standing face-to-face with me.  That's not right, is it?  Neither of these boys seems to smell exactly right, and they certainly don't know how to do the job.  It's all "sniff, sniff, sniff" and "pee over where Roxy peed" but no action.

In desperation, I've turned (literally) to flagging the man, pushing myself up against him in the most shameless and direct way.  He LAUGHS at me!  He thinks it's funny.  He says something about "wrong species" and "incest" but I don't understand those big words he uses half the time. 

I really, really NEED to be bred.  They keep me locked up and this yard is impossible to escape from.  Can you please send the word to Aunt Liz and Aunt Julie and Aunt Louella and Aunt Cheyenne and Grandma Denise that I NEED to be bred.  Somewhere, there's got to be a male who has some idea of how to get past these stupid diapers.  Time is running short, and I know the mail is slow.  (Ha, ha, I made a pun.)   I'm tired of these boys with no testicles and this man with a strange sense of humor.  Sometimes I think he has no testicles either.  Send me a real MAN.  Cousin Kit got bred.  It's my turn.

Yours fondly,

Roxy

Mar 2 .  Roxy is still wearing diapers in the house.  The drippy pro-estrous should be over soon, and then the real fun begins.  We got her letter certifying that she is in heat today, and Rosemary and Dylan will take it with them to the Gonzales USDAA trial and try to get some of our entry fees back.

The 4T-5T diapers fit her pretty well.  It's scary when you get good at cutting a tail hole in those.  I cut too deep on these and got a bit of the left leg as well, as you can see in the picture.

Progress with A-frame retraining: if you care.