Monday, August 31, 2009

Fun games & tricks for dogs - Turn off the light switch!

Gracie learns to turn off the light switch!

Have to say that Mum wanted to teach me this trick too, but I'm a little short in the poop for this activity. She's thinking about using a chair to boost me. In the meantime, we'll show you Gracie's new trick.

Mum started by placing Gracie's target (our yogurt container lid) taped to the wall, but Gracie loves that target so much she used her mouth to pull it off and then ran around the house like a crazy dog. Just a little too stimulating :) So then Mum used two criss-crossed pieces of tape to the wall to get Gracie interested in pawing the tape, starting low where Gracie could paw it easily. Worked great!

Then Mum moved the tape up the wall until it was over the light switch. When Gracie got the hang of pawing the tape on the light switch and turning off the light, Mum then removed the tape and voila! Gracie got it! Then she named the trick and started sending Gracie to the light switch from a further and further distance. Now Gracie can go across the room to turn of the light switch. Sure will save on our light bill, BOL!!!

Enjoy!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Around the dog agility blog-o-sphere!

Silvia has some updates on how she teaches running contacts. And always good for a little review. Read more...

If you'd like to see the results from the Eastern Regional of the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge held in August in Indianapolis, read on...

Susan Garrett has a few posts about how she exercises her dogs to get in shape for agility. Definitely worth a read, here, here and here.

The debate rages on for the 24" weave pole spacing in USDAA. We've posted about it before, and yes, we are for 24"!!! Would love the opportunity to save my back if I can, fur sure! The latest is a weave poll survey the Susan Garrett posted that we posted about a couple of weeks ago. Here are the results from her survey, as she posted on the USDAA Yahoo Group list:
2658 completed the survey - (The numbers in the bracket beside are the numbers she last reported)

Question one:

1. Do you think USDAA should change their weave pole variance to include the option of having 24" spacing.

Yes 94.7% (94.6) (94.3 in the first 700 respondents)
No 5.4% ( 5.3) (7.7 in the first 700 respondents)

With 428 people leaving a written comment

Question two:
2. Do you think USDAA should eliminate the option for clubs to use weave pole bases that are less than 22" wide?

Yes 87.5% (87.5)
No 12.5 % (12.5)

With 315 written comments

Question 3

3. Do you compete in USDAA agility with your dog?

Yes
60.6% (62.5)
Not yet but intend on it
26.2% (24.8)
No but I would if they made the change to 24" weave pole bases.
7.2% (6.7)
No, I do not compete, nor do I have any plans to compete in USDAA
agility 6.8% (6.0) (mostly Canadians that live too far from
the border to compete in the US)

With 388 written comments.
TajMuttHall has a little post about their class experiment with timing 20 vs 24" poles. Interesting info.

Nice little instructional video on "How to build a tire, Part 1" from Gone To the Dogs Agility.

Great little post about how to make homemade dog boots from Agility Adventures.

The FCI World Agility Championships are coming up and will be held September 18-20, 2009 in Dornbirn, Austria.

The US team was chosen through tryouts held in May in Hopkins, Minnesota after qualifying in seven ISC events held throughout the US from May 08 to March 09.

Small Team:
Marcy Mantell, Wave, Shetland Sheepdog, CA
Katie Conn, Twix, Shetland Sheepdog, PA
Dee Anna Gamel, Kelsi, Shetland Sheepdog, GA
Melanie Del Villaggio, Dara, Shetland Sheepdog, TN

Medium Team:
Ashley Deacon, Luka, Pyrenean Shepherd, CA
Karen Holik, Sizzle, Shetland Sheepdog, FL
Paulette Swartzendruber, Rush, Shetland Sheepdog, MA
Jennifer Crank, Blaster, Shetland Sheepdog, OH

Large Team:
Channan Fosty, Icon, Border Collie, CA
Marcus Topps, Juice, Border Collie, TX
Geri Hernandez, Focus, Border Collie, CA
Denise Thomas, Zippity, Border Collie, PA

Team Captain - Andy Hartman
Team Coach - Nancy Gyes
Ast. Coach - Kathie Leggett
Team Mgr - Toni Osojnicki

The US Team will be competing against the likes of Susan Garrett (CAN), Greg Derrett & Bernadette Bay (GBR), Svetlana Tumanova (RUS), Silvia Trkman (SLO), Silas Boogk (GER) and more top world teams.

Here's the schedule:

Friday:

Competition 09:30-20:00
Team Jumping Large (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Team Jumping Medium (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Team Jumping Small (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Team Agility Large (Judge: Manuel Alff)

Saturday:

Competition 08:00-19:00
Single Jumping Small (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Single Jumping Medium (judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Single Jumping Large (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Team Agility Medium (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Team Agility Small (Judge: Manuel Alff)

Sunday

Competition 08:00-16:00
Single Agility Small (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Single Agility Medium (Judge: Manuel Alff)
Single Agility Large (Judge: Bernd Hüppe)
Final event / award ceremony ca. 16:00 about 16:00

Here's a nice little vid of some running contact training from Ingerid Margrete & her dog Orkan at a clinic with Fanny Gott and Justine Davenport.


Great tutorial about how to teach side legs up, enjoy! Now if I could just get un-maniced and get serious about my back legs, sheesh!


Happy agility!

What's new in the shop!

I love fall, it's one of my favorite times of year. Now only does it get cooler and we get to do more hiking, agility and spend lots more time outside, but it's also the time when lots of new, cool dog stuff starts appearing in stores in time for the holidays.

So we spent the weekend updating both JohannTheDog.com and RaiseAGreenDog.com with uber cool new dogs stuff. And we just had to share some of this new stuff with ya, of course! Here are some of our favs:

This is the new rubber Talk to Me Treatball. Not hard plastic like those other ones. We're in the process of testing it, so stay tuned, but so far we're liking it as a treat dispenser :)

Talk To Me Rubber Treatball Dog Toy

For all you agility fans out there, AgilityVision has put together a DVD of the best of European 2009!

2009 European Open Agility Championships DVD

Clean Run has some Inov-8 Rocklites on sale, great bargain! $99.95, Sale $64.95

Inov-8 Womens Roclite 282

Orvis has a new dog toy out, this looks fun! Orvis Squiggle Ball.


OnlyNaturalPet.com has a new product available, a great green and healthier option. Shoo! Tag for Dogs for those nasty fleas and ticks.



A new treat! You know how much I love those sweet potato chews. Dr. Harvey's Sweet Potate'r Chews.

Jax & Bones have come out with an entire line of new toys that have all natural dyes. Here's just one: Jax & Bones - Larry the Lion toy. And they also have a duck, lobster, lamb and many more furry friends. They'd be great for a little tug!

Jax & Bones - Larry the Lion toy
We even got lots of Halloween stuff on the site - from costumes, to treats, to talking toys!

Zelda Cave Dog Costume

Zelda Cave Dog Costume

Talking Pumpkin

Multipet Talking Pumpkin Dog Toy

And some very nice jackets to keep us warm this winter:

West Paw Design CloudBurst Dog Jacket M - Moss

West Paw Design CloudBurst Dog Jacket

Ice-Barker 100% Merino Wool Jacket

Ice-Barker 100% Merino Wool Jacket

That's not even a quarter of the new cool dog stuff, we'll share more later, or if you just can't wait you can visit JohannTheDog.com and RaiseAGreenDog.com to see it all!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

What an honor! We're in Dog Sport Magazine!

A couple of months back we officially met the great folks from Dog Sport Magazine on Twitter. So when they contacted us for an interview for their magazine, we jumped at the chance.

In the next issue, September-October 2009 issue, they are featuring an interview with Mum about me, how we came to find each other, about my agility, hobbies and favorite fun things to do and eat, and how Johann (that's me :) turned into JohannTheDog.com, and Rescue Me, and Raise A Green Dog. Mum also talks about what the future holds for us and JohannTheDog.com!

So to celebrate me and Mum being in their magazine, and mentioned on the front cover with the likes of uber celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Susan Garrett, the nice folks at Dog Sport Magazine are offering 10% off anything (and they mean anything!) on their website Store and Subscription Page for my friends. Now how cool is that!

All you have to do is enter the code Johann0910 during the checkout process. But you better hurry, the 10% discount with the code only lasts until September 30th, 2009.

We haven't seen the issue we are in yet, it's due to ship this week or next. But a couple of months ago they sent us the Jan-Feb and Mar-April 2009 issues, and I have to say we were super impressed with their magazine.

I think it had been a few years since we had seen the magazine and we have to say they have grown! They have articles from Brenna Fender about all kinds of dog sports, guest articles from top trainers, info on tricks, health, wellness, training for all kinds of dogs sports, all put together in a very slick package. Head on over to their new website for a taste of those great articles.

Oh and BTW! You can even order the issue that Mum and I are in for $8.95! Mum went the other day and order a couple of extra copies for my memory box, BOL!!!

We can't wait to see the article!

Taking Woodstock!

In honor of the new movie coming out this weekend, "Taking Woodstock," and of course the 40th Anniversary of the weekend of Peace & Love, I just had to don my favorite 60's attire.

OK, I'm not really dressed like this. I'm pawticipating in a Twitter PawPawty this weekend to help RomeoTheCat and other four leggers raise money for the The Emergency Animal Rescue Service (TEARS).

Nearly every month there is a Twitter PawPawty. It's a great time for all the dogs, cats, bunnies and other furfriends to get together, have some fun, win some prizes (of which we are donating a Marley & Me DVD) and raise some good money for some anipals in need. With all the four leggers at the pawty, guess we're not going to have to worry about home insurance, thank DOG!

So if you're on Twitter, stop by the pawty and donate a buck or two, or three, or five to help! Or just hop on board, Gracie's driving the bus!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The dog days of summer!

The Dog Days of Summer have really kicked in. It's been very hot and humid around here the past few days, mixed in with some pawsome storms. So we're taking advantage of the great outdoors whenever we can.

Mum, Gracie and I are taking lots of early morning or late evening walks, mixed in with some intermittent sprinting. That's always fun. We keep this up, there's no way Mum will need any diet pills review, BOL!!!

When we get back we've been scoping out the rabbit poo in the yard which is always a nice treat, and then taking a quick little dip in our pool, and gettin' our zoomies on.

Here I am between munchie sessions :) before Mum could scoop up all the rabbit poo.

The other day Wiggy got to come out again and explore all the weeds that have begun taking over our beds. But he always ends up at his favorite, the sage.

Our Hydrangeas have started turning back to green, but they are still so beautiful!

The Black Eyed Susans are still looking pretty good. But a lot of the other bloomers have either suffered from the heat, lack of water, or are between bloomings.

Here's Gracie, coming down off her hippie high from the rabbit poo, just kidding!

When it gets super hot, we play with our Nina Ottosson Turbo. We're really starting to get the hang of it.

Mum tried to do some shaping with me, on hind end awareness. But like always I just wanted her to tell me what to do. We've decided that shaping is just not my game, and were super excited to know that after watching the Amanda Shyne Contact 360 video that her Dilly also doesn't like shaping for the same reason I don't - just tell me what to do!!! I am not alone!!! Yeah!

Gracie worked on a new trick, which she's still kinda mastering. She's learn to turn off the light at the wall switch, so we hope to have video of that later in the week!

Hope everyone is having a pawsome week!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Contacts 360 Amanda Shyne DVD from AgilityVision!

Amanda Shyne's Contact 360 Seminar was held and broadcast live via VOD on June 26th, 2009 by the nice folks at AgilityVision.

They were kind enough to send us the new DVD of the seminar that they put together to try out!

The DVD is a 2 disc set with about 4 hours of content from the 5 hour seminar, priced at $49.99. The video is also available from Agility Vision via VOD for $24.99 with 72 hours of availability, which will give you plenty of time to view the entire four hours of video.

Here's a trailer to give you a taste!

Even though we don't do 2o2o, we sure got a lot of ideas from the DVD, including (my favorite of the entire DVD) how to get me to speed up across the mid plank of the dogwalk, where I could always use some improvement.

Amanda was a terrific presenter, very personable, helpful and kind, and she shared a ton of info. I particularly liked how she broke down how to separate parts of contact behavior and how to improve each part for the utmost performance. And if you do 2o2o, you've got a lot of ideas packed into this DVD about how to make them very reliable, as well as ideas for turning after and approaches.

We loved her consistent reminder to reward the parts of the contacts you are training; example, if training approach, reward approach. And loved her ideas on teeter training, which we really need to work on speeding up my teeter performance.

Here's a bit from the DVD cover:

Amanda Shyne is the '07 and '09 USDAA Northeast Regional Grand Prix winner from the 22" class. She was a 2008 USDAA Nationals Grand Prix and Steeplechase finalist, placing 3rd in Grand Prix finals.

In this seminar Amanda showed how she trained the consistent and lightning fast two-on-two-off contacts with her dog "Dilly" -- and showed how these contact skills can be used to improve any kind of contact behavior, such as the running contact of her young dog "Gimme." Along with training two-on-two-off contacts, this seminar covered:

* Teaching contact entries and exits
* Speed over the board
* Training a fast, happy, and reliable teeter
* Proofing your contacts
* Contact problem-solving

This video is great for anyone who wants some tips on how to speed up a dog on contacts -- as well as for those people who have fast dogs and need to add some control and reliability!

Great DVD, great presenter!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The art of rolling in yucky stuff!


Ahhh...rolling in yucky stuff, it's the best!!!

Why do dogs like to roll in yucky stuff? Some say it's instinct, a way for us to mask our own scent, so we can sneak up on prey and take 'em by surprise. Others say it's a way for us to communicate that we've found some yummy stuff!

Who knows, I just love to do it! And Mum is kind enough to let me do it all I want in our yard. Other places outside our yard are another matter, 'cause she doesn't know where those yucky things come from.

But then of course Mum sometimes has to get out the 4396508 water filter and clean me off. But she doesn't mind, she likes to let me be a dog!

So roll I do!!!! In my yard, every chance I get. My rolling technique? Sniff, nose dive, skim across with my entire body, rise up, shake, and repeat if necessary! Oh yeah!!!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Deer antlers rawk!

Gracie and I have a new favorite chew! And dog are we happy about it. It's just not that easy to find safe, healthy dog chews ya know?

So what are they? Naturally shed deer antlers and they rawk! Here I am enjoying mine!

And here's Gracie gnawing her way around her larger one.


What do we like about 'em?

They are organic and natural. Most all the companies we found that have them collect the deer antlers in the wild that are naturally shed by the deer, so nobody has to be harmed for us to enjoy them.

Antlers, unlike most dog bones you get at the store, don't chip or splinter when you chew on them. They may look like they have some sharp little edges, which Mum first worried about, but after just seconds, the edges got soggy and were perfectly safe.

They last a long, long time. Mum doesn't let us have them everyday, and she doesn't let us have them for more than 30 minutes, so one chew is lasting us weeks, which is great! When you chew them, they grind down very slowly. Gracie is kind of an aggressive chewer, and her larger antler is lasting just as long as my medium size one.

They don't have any odor and they won't stain the carpet, which Mum loves. And we've been chewing on our antlers for over a week with absolutely no tummy upset.

One day Mum gave me mine and I ran around the house for 30 minutes before I started in chewing. She thinks that's funny, BOL!!

You can get Free Range Buckarooz Premium Antlerz Dog Chew, Antlerz Nature's Own Dog Chew Treat and ZiwiPeak Good Dog Deer Antlers from PetFoodDirect, here are some coupons:

15% off ALL Pet Treats at PetFoodDirect.com. Use code PERTRTS1. Expires 9.30.09 or 5% Off using code PER5PCT. Expires 12.31.09

You can also get the ZiwiPeak Good Dog Deer Antler Treats from OnlyNaturalPet.com too. Here's a coupon for them if you've never purchased from them before:

Save 5% on your first order at Only Natural Pet Store! Coupon code CJ15.

Deer antlers? We give them 5 (yes, 5!) paws up!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Around the dog agility blog-o-sphere!

The 2009 Agility Association of Canada National Championships were held in Ottawa, Ontario, July 30 - August 2, 2009. A draft of the aggregate final results are up. Courses and class results here. YouTube vids here.

At the July 09 board meeting of the Agility Association of Canada 24" weave pole spacing was approved. Here's more info from their site:
As of September 1, 2010, weave pole spacing will be changed to 24” on centre. The long implementation period reflects the need to replace equipment and allows both host clubs and individuals the time to do so. Because of concerns about dogs having to adjust back and forth between sets of poles with different spacing, there will be no period during which current and new requirements will both be acceptable. That is, 24” poles must be used after September 1, 2010, but are not acceptable in the trial ring prior to that date. Further work is underway to develop a plan to subsidize clubs purchasing new weave bases and to investigate the possibility of working with suppliers to manufacture and provide new bases to both clubs and individuals at a favourable price.
If you haven't stopped over and visited Jesse's (the JRT) YouTube channel, it is so worth a look. 20 year old Heather trains Jesse, quite an accomplishment! Lots and lots of tricks.

The USDAA NC Regionals were held this past weekend in Crystal Lake, IL. We don't have the results, (EDIT: see below for results) but have heard that Angie Beniquisto & Dylan kicked some dog agility butt, winning the Team (with Judy Schor/Moxie and Jen Crank/Blast), 16" GP and SC. Angie and Duncan also won the 12" SC. Nice job Angie! SC Regionals will be the weekend of the 29th of August, SW Regionals will be held the weekend of September 5th.

The Border Collie Classic Open European Agility Championships are taking this weekend in Bettembourg, Luxemburg. You can see results from Friday, and we expect other results will be posted soon. Thank you to aurea.userworld.com for keeping us posted.

Thanks to our friends at Just Agility, who dug up another good site to help you build your own agility equipment.

Dates for Karen Pryor's ClickExpo 2010 have been announced and registration is open. Bios of presenters are here. Dates and locations are:

ClickerExpo 2010
January 29-31, 2010 — Portland, Oregon
Doubletree, Portland

March 19-21 - Lexington, Kentucky
Griffin Gate Marriot Resort and Spa

Here's a nice little vid of Bernadette and Zen (O'Bay Shelties) at EO 09, 4th place in Ind Jumping. You can read their blog post about the event here.

There's a new K9 athlete online community run by Ron Watson, a disc dog fanatic and dog trainer in Michigan, you may want to check out. Not that new, I guess, since about January or so. Don't know what the plans are for the site, but so far they have a few agility articles from Susan Garrett and Bud Houston. There's also a forum, although it looks like it's used primarily with the disc dog lovers. There are now over 900 members, including Mum and yours truly.

For all of you wanting or needing info on dog agility injuries, one of my favorite resources is Dr. Stephen Canapp at the Veterinary Orthopedic Sports Medicine Group in Annapolis Junction, Maryland. He has written often for Clean Run about dog agility injuries; including the iliopsoas, rotator cuff, shoulder and cruciate ligament injuries. You can see some of his articles here. And now you can follow him on Twitter.

And last but not least, the system I utilize to keep track of my agility runs, placements, times, titles, etc., is Agility Record Book. Love it, love it, love it!!! We see today that they released support for Mac OSX! Nice work! They also have a Yahoo Group with amazing service to help you along.

EDIT: Here are the top performing results from the USDAA NC Regionals:

Grand Prix Finals - Performance
8"
1st Splash/S Crank
2nd Amoco/B Pelton
3rd Rudy/R Osiol

12"
1st Bruce/L Fearn
2nd Neelah/A Sheffield

16"
1st Brownie/T Vojtech
2nd Remy/T Smorch
3rd DiDi/N Schramm
4th Maverick/D Gill

22"
1st Kestrel/C Bates
2nd Wyatt/S Kaiser
3rd Punk/K Phillip
4th Houston/K Wells

Grand Prix Finals - Championship
12"
1st Whim/K Elliott
2nd Eve/J Julyan
3rd Tobi/D Paul

16"
1st Dylan/A Benacquisto
2nd Bode/L Michaels
3rd Neil/J Meyer
4th Jimmy/A McLean

22"
1st Sweet/D Fontaine
2nd Pyro/R Carter
3rd Streak/D Sanders
4th Jet/D Sanders

26"
1st Scream/A Braue
2nd Maverick/D Fontaine
3rd Zippity/D Thomas
4th Presto/T Smorch

Team
1st Blaster/J Crank, Dylan/A Benacquisto, Moxie/J Schor
2nd Stellar/L Mecklenburg, Cisco/R King, Scream/A Braue
3rd Presto/T Smorch, Encore/S Garrett, Recess/K Cullen
4th Mick/D Rohaus, Mickey/D Paul, Drifter/R Demascio

Performance Pairs
1st Kestrel/C Bates, Remy/T Smorch
2nd Bruce/L Fearn, Sydney/B Bicksler
3rd Neelah/A Sheffield, Maverick/D Gill
4th Lil' J/D Stover, Sadie/A Tickle

Steeplechase - Performance
8"
1st Splash/S Crank
2nd Judy/A McLean
3rd Lizzie/L Polazzi
4th Rudy/R Osiol

12"
1st Sydney/B Bicksler
2nd Neelah/A Sheffield
3rd Bruce/L Fearn
4th Lacey/A Stocum

16"
1st Remy/T Smorch
2nd Visa/T Vojtech
3rd Brisco/R Bardenett
4th Forrest/H Varco

22"
1st Buster Brown/J Boggs
2nd Vice/V Mortarino
3rd Wyatt/S Kaiser

Steeplechase - Championship
12"
1st Duncan/A Benacquisto
2nd Tobi/D Paul
3rd Mikey/B Rogers
4th Whim/K Elliott

16"
1st Dylan/A Benacquisto
2nd Taser/J Pinder
3rd Smitten/M Miller
4th Skye/L Michaels

22"
1st Ting/E Lynch
2nd Blaze/B Wiegand
3rd Sweet/D Fontaine
4th Streak/D Sanders

26"
1st Scream/A Braue
2nd Xtreme/J Crank
3rd Drifter/R Demascio
4th Austin/M Miller

-------------

To view past dog agility blog-o-sphere articles, click here!

Tricks, tricks!

You know how much Gracie, Mum and I love tricks. So we were excited when Mum met Kyra Sundance and Chalsey on Facebook the other day, and Kyra was kind enough to tell us that our pull off the socks trick was #102, BOL!!!

They are the authors of 101 Dog Tricks - Step-by-step activities to engage, challenge and bond with your dog which we've seen around. And last year they came out with a new DVD. The other day they posted a little YouTube vid trailer of the DVD and we wanted to share with you!


Hope you enjoy! We picked up a couple of ideas for new tricks just from the YouTube vid :)

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Fun Games for Dogs - Pulling off Mum's socks 1+2

When Mum likes to help me work my backend and also help strengthen my iliopsoas, we do a little tugging. I love to tug, so it's an easy for me!

To make tugging a little more interesting, Mum came up with the idea of teaching me to tug her socks off. A somewhat useful trick for her, I would guess :)

Since I love to tug, Mum had me tugging off her sock in about three minutes flat! She started putting the sock on just a few inches on her foot, to make it easy to start. Then she gradually put the sock further and further on her foot, until it was all the way on.

In those three minutes, I was pulling the sock entirely off her foot. We just made sure to stay on the carpet and keep off the porcelain tile it's much easier to tug that way, BOL!

Now Gracie was different, she always is, BOL!! She didn't try to tug Mum's sock off, she was just nose touching it. She's not quite yet the tugger I am. So Mum was working with her, and it was taking too much of Gracie's brain, so they went on to something more fun for Gracie.

Then the next day Mum was having me pull off her sock for real one night, and Gracie was watching. Mum decided to put her sock on the other foot to see what Gracie would do, and voila! Gracie pulled it right off her foot, go figure! I taught her a trick :) Watch and learn baby, watch and learn :)

Here's the vid. Super easy trick to learn, so go out there and have some fun!

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Around the dog agility blog-o-sphere!

A few tidbits from around the dog agility blog-o-sphere the past week or so.

The Purina Incredible Dog Challenge Eastern Regionals will be held in Indianapolis this coming weekend. As best as we can determine, Friday is the day for open qualifiers from 11 AM - 3 PM EST. Saturday is the actual regional event from 12 Noon to 5 PM, EST.

Finals will be held on October 2nd and 3rd at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, Missouri.

Here's the network broadcast schedule:

Western Regionals:
08/30/09 Sunday 3:00 - 4:00 PM ESPN

Eastern Regionals:
09/20/09 Sunday 12:00 - 1:00 PM ESPN2
09/20/09 Sunday 5:00 - 6:00 PM ESPN

Finals:
St Louis
01/24/10 Sunday 3:30 - 4:30 PM ABC

Here you can see the results from the Western Regional held in San Diego in June.

The Purina World Dog Games will be held at Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia on October 31 - November 1, 2009. The top Aussie canine athletes will compete in flyball, agility, canine disc and diving dog. To keep up on the action, you can follow the World Dog Games on Twitter.

We've seen this before, but not sure if we ever pointed it out. Nice little site on how to build your own agility equipment from InstantAgility.com.

Bob at Belgian Shepherds and Agility graciously added the courses from EO '09 on his site. Now there's some fun practice set ups! And you can go here, click on courses on the left and see other European courses by judge and event.

A little more from EO. Here is Krisztina Kabai & Chili in the final, winners of large dog individual.


Always enjoy watching Silas and Caja, wow! 2nd place in individual finals.


Be sure and stop over at our friends in Portugal, Hugo and Kissy Just Agility's YouTube channel for more nice vids at EO and their recap of the event on their blog. Big congrats to them on their placements!

Like this! In prep for one of the new Contact Point pups joining the family, Elite Forces of Fuzzy Destruction has been making a list of puppy behaviors. Nice list!

Team Whisner has a great little post about nose work games. Looks like some fun stuff to do with your pup on a rainy, cold or snowy day.

Frontline 2009 was held back in May in Monza, Italy. You can see a lot of vids from Frontline 2009 here.

Till next time!

Charlie, my friend...

It's been a sad week, and Mum and I haven't been able to type about this, 'cause every time we tried, both of us would get all weepy.

Our very, very, very first blogging friend (back when our blog wasn't a real blog, in 2004) made passage to the Rainbow Bridge this past weekend. Charlie is now up there with oh too many of my paw friends. We know they are having a rompin' good time, feeling healthy, happy and young again. But we miss Charlie, and all the others, so much. I don't think I will every get used to this, hope I never do.

Charlie, and his Mum Brooke, Dad Greg, and Brother Opy, welcomed me to the dog blog-0-sphere with open paw, and encouraged me to have a real blog so they could come and leave pee-mails. We were one of the first pups to join their amazing organization - Dogs With Blogs - where we've been lucky enough to meet hundreds of new pup friends. Over the years Charlie and his family have given selfishly of so much of their time making DWB what it is today, raising money for paw charities and lots, lots more; never asking for anything in return.

I so want to run up to Brooke, Greg and Opy and give them lots and lots of doggie licks...but they live so fur away. So in honor of Charlie, we've decided to honor all the Aussie pups looking for furever homes over at my Rescue Me blog this week, hoping that some folks will be as lucky as Charlie's family to find their soul mate.

Oh how we miss you Chuck, always will. Run free my fighting friend. We will never forget you.

Monday, August 03, 2009

New AKC Fast & Mixed Breed Titles approved

The AKC Board, at the July Board Meeting, approved new Fast Class titles effective January 1, 2010.

Here are the details from the AKC website:
FAST Agility Class – New Advanced Title

...it was voted (unanimously) to approve suggested changes to Chapter 9, AKC Regulations for Agility Trials, to add a new advanced title past the Master FAST title. The new title will be called Triple Q Excellent (TQX).

In addition, the regulations correct the Titles chart to show the right number of Qs required for the MXF and MFP tiles. Complete regulation changes are attached as Appendix B. New wording is as follows (underlined):

Chapter 9.

Triple Q Excellent = TQX

Requires the XF title. In order to acquire the Triple Q Excellent Title, a dog must
receive 10 triple qualifying scores obtained from the Excellent B Standard Agility
Class, the Excellent B Jumpers With Weaves Agility Class and the Excellent B
FAST Agility Class on the same day.

Triple Q Excellent Preferred = TQXP

Requires the XFP title. In order to acquire the Triple Q Excellent Preferred Title, a
dog must receive 10 triple qualifying scores from the Excellent B Standard
Preferred Agility Class, the Excellent B Jumpers With Weaves Preferred Agility
Class and the Excellent B FAST Preferred Agility Class on the same day.
The Board minutes also include approvals of titles and trial procedures for the addition of mixed breeds to compete in separate classes and earn separate titles in AKC trials beginning April of 2010. You can read the full minutes of the meeting here.

Edit: Rumors are indicating that the TQX will be retroactive back to Jan 1, 2007, when FAST first became a title class. (unconfirmed)

Walkin' the walk!

Mum, Gracie and I have been walking a lot lately, mostly because the weather has been just amazing, nice and cool in the evenings. Mum decided to take our Palm Centro with us the other day and get a few pics, so we could show you some of our neighborhood. We thought for a phone camera they came out pretty good :)

Here we are waiting somewhat patiently for Mum to get movin'.

Awww...finally we are off!

First order of the walk, checking peemails since yesterday's walk.

And we always have to sit at the curb before crossing the road. Safety first, Mum always says. I don't think I've crossed a single street my entire five years of life before sitting. Gotta watch out for those cars and hid lights and look right and left (or is it left and right :)

Then we're off again, here's one of our nice walk views, sidewalks everywhere, new trees planted between the sidewalks and the road, lots and lots of look a like houses and overly fertilized green grass, that Mum doesn't like us to be on too much.

Every time we turn this certain corner, there's a house with a bunny in the yard. Shhhh...Gracie still thinks it's real, silly girl! She pulls and tugs and squeals her fool head off everytime we get near it. BOL!!!

Then we turn another corner to see one of four retention ponds in our neighborhood. Gracie loves them!!! Me too!!! But Mum doesn't let us go there much, lots and lots of duck poo, yum! And since they are retention ponds they are basically the run off from the streets and everyone's overly fertilized lawns, nasty stuff! We thought once we saw a two headed fish in theres.

Every other house has these utility boxes in the yard. The nice thing is that all cables and lines are buried in our neighborhood, so we don't lose our electricity very much, or our cable during storms. The' in' thing is to plant perennial grasses around them to hide them from view since they are in lots and lots of front yards. They are also very nice places for little critters to hide.

Sitting at the curb again, and we sat and stayed too, for treats of course! Nearly home after a couple of miles...

Of course a 2-3 mile walk just wasn't enough for us pups! We had to get our zoomies on after we got home.

And of course Gracie had to have her time in the pool. Wait...the pool's dry!

Not for long!!! Super refreshing!

Hope every one and every pup had a pawsome weekend! We sure did!
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