On a Roll

Well, the noise and commotion of the convention center didn't seem to phase Kitie too much. She Q'd in 3 out of 4 runs again this weekend! Bringing the double Q count to 10! She *never* runs as fast on mats as outside, but she still managed to place in every run. Go Kittie!

No Qs for Abby, but we ended the weekend on a really good note.....she would have qualified in JWW and earned her AXJ title, if *I* hadn't got confused and forgot to front cross after a tunnel. I'm proud of my little wild child, she did really well. Stangely this course was by far the toughest course of the weekend. I have to remember she's still very green, and I need to keep a connection with her, the whole time on the course. I can't just go out and run and expect her to just do her job, I have to make a point of checking in with her with eye contact through out each run.

What's wrong with that one?

The AKC nationals are underway, right about now. We decided not to go, Tulsa OK is a bit far to travel just for the honor/experience of it. Maybe next year. The rumors are it's going to be in North Carolina, so crossing everything that at least one member of the pack makes it in for 09! We have quite a few friends going and I wish all of them the best of luck.

Instead of nationals we'll be trialing at what will forever be known as the "what's wrong with that one" trial. The beaver county kennel club's trial is held with an all breed conformation show and obedience trial at a big convention center in downtown Pittsburgh. There's a ton of spectators, it's loud, chaotic....and just a totally different feel than any other trial we do, with the exception of Cleveland in Dec. or the invitational.

Now two of my pugs are from conformation lines, both were shown in Conformation, one even finished her CH. But they are absolutely not at conformation weight. I'll never understand why many breeds are shown so heavy, they truely are obese. Showing in conformation seems like a lifetime ago. I don't think there's enough $$$ in the world that could make me even think about putting on pantyhose and walking into that ring with a chubby little dog waddling next to me......I think the pugs agree with me on this one.

Here's where the trial got it's new name......I thought it would be nice to take Abby over to the breed ring to see Helen, her breeder who was there showing her father and sister. This was Abby's first agility trial, she was just amazing and so, so cute! Earning Qs in 3 out of 4 runs and beating the pants off of all but 1 big dog! When this other person who shows pugs looks down at my cute little girl and says "what's wrong with that one, what does she have worms?!?" What do you say to that? I had to stay calm, saying almost anything could insult her breeder as well. Helen spoke up before I could and tried her best to explain that Abby was at an ideal weight for a performance dog.... it didn't matter, this woman's (Beth Robel in case anyone wants to know) mind was made up, I'm surprised she didn't call some sort of authority on me for pug starvation. My dogs *must* be starving, they can actually breathe.

Just a typical day

This is what the pug pack does just about every single day. Go to Frick park, to run, bark and act crazy. They also like to balance themselves on anything they can find.

Abby likes to take balancing on stuff to a new level. Abby's an over-achiever, with little sense of fear.

See that little speck? that's Kittie charging down the hillside. She went up their to chase some chirpy birds away. Kittie *hates* birds, almost as much as she hates airplanes.

We usually stick to the trials, since it's not legal to run off leash in the park except in the boring and dangerous for little dogs OLEA (off leash exercise area), but it was way too nice out to stick to the trials. The sun was actually out for two days, in a row, that's a weather event in Pittsburgh!

Does this guy look hungry?

OK, not the best picture, but I spotted this guy sitting way, up high in the huge pine trees behind our house. You can't tell from the picture, but he...she is huge! Way bigger than my dogs. My little 11 pound dogs could be snacks for this guy........

Mud, mud everywhere

This is our yard, pretty huh? We moved into our little house at the end of December. The yard was covered in pretty, white snow. Now that it's thawed and rained for *weeks* we're left with mud. So, this is my spring project: turn mud into pretty green grass.

There is a tiny bit of green out there, with some flowers and everything!

The pugs don't mind, "we'll just hang out on the teeter looking cute until we get fed"

Abby doesn't care, she'll weave right through that mud!

First trial of Spring

and Abby definitely still needs some work, or maybe I need to work on running Abby. She's so fast, so wild and so much fun to run, but things just aren't clicking out there yet. I will say, she held her stay, did all her weave poles and got all her contacts (fast, the only way she knows how!), but it's everything that happens inbetween that's the problem. I'm not taking any of it too seriously, she's only two yrs old.

Kittie did well, Q'd in 3 out of 4 runs, and manged to bring home double Q #9. Lots of bars were ticking though, but only one came down all weekend.

Snow

and lots of it. We were supposed to go to our first agility trial of the season this past weekend in Grove city, OH to run on some dirt. Kittie and Abby *love* running on dirt. Bags were packed, pugs were wound up in anticipation.....then we got word about a huge storm moving into OH. They ended up with 20" of the white stuff and the trial was actually cancelled on Sat. Luckily we just got a dusting that will be melted before the end of the week.

I was really curious to see how Abby, my baby, green pug was going to do. She still needs one more leg in EX A JWW and two more legs in EX A standard, it's been the same story for a while now, she either crashes (literally) into a weave pole and pops out or slides right off the table....sometimes several times in row. I love enthusiasm, but she looks like she should be wearing a helmet for her own safety sometimes. We'll have to wait until next weekend to see what she has in store for me.