Sometimes you just gotta stop and smell the roses!

Look what we found on our walk the other day! Wild roses!

We found an entire bush of them on our walk to the mail box. It was tucked way back in the brush (which we are sure was full of ticks), so Mum got back in there instead of us and picked one so we could see it up close.

Oh so fragrant! Sometimes you just gotta sit back on your patio furniture and stop and smell the roses, right? Or in Gracie's case, eat 'em, BOL!

Wishing you a pawsome holiday weekend!!!

Some nice endurance walkin'!

After a rainy weekend, the weather has been amazing down here the past few days. About 75 during the day and 50-60s at night. Great walking weather.

So Mum, Gracie and I have been doing about 5-7 miles a day walking, broken up in two sessions, morning and late afternoon, around the pastures to get in some endurance work. It's a gorgeous site to walk. Here's a quick pic from the other day.

Mum started giving me a new nickname - Calvin Bo-rail (after the real Calvin Borel, the first jockey in history to win 3 of 4 Kentucky Derby’s consecutively.) If you watched the Derby you may remember Calvin, on Super Saver. Calvin always likes to hug the rail, so that's how he got his nickname Calvin Bo-rail. Well, when we get to this certain part of the pasture where the fence is, I love to hug the rail, even though Gracie tries her best to edge me out

This afternoon it started getting cloudy and much more humid, and Mum needed one of those nice walk in tubs after our walk today, she thought. I thought she smelled great, BOL!!

Gracie smelled pretty good too, after enjoying a nice roll in yucky stuff :)

Think it's going to rain tomorrow. Mum's ready for a little break from all this walking. Hope you are having a pawsome week!

OMD! Looks what's at Clean Run - Gracie's Favorite Toys!

We got super excited the other day when we were checking out the what's new section on Clean Run!

They are going to carry chickens! These aren't just any chickens, these are toy chickens that squawk like you've never heard!

You may remember a few Christmases ago, Mum gave Gracie her first Henrietta, and she absolutely loved it. We sent this video on to the company that makes them and they put Gracie's video on their website, and sent Gracie another one as a gift. That time they sent her Henrietta the Original Wild Chicken. And Gracie loved that one just as much.


Not only does Clean run have the original Henrietta, but they also have Earl the Ultimate Chick Magnet, Beakham the Sporty Bird, Grandma Hippie Chick and Jeff E. Coli Surfin' Chicken Dude. (Ok, Gracie, settle down :) You can get them in two sizes small for $4.95 or the large (that's what Gracie has) for $8.95. And they have the new Balloon Toys too! You can see 'em all here.

They aren't super tough toys, so we suggest you supervise, but Mum loves using the Henrietta as a reward for Gracie after some nice agility practice on a jump sequence or her weaves around the outdoor décor.

Gracie goes crazy for it!

IFCS WAC 2010 Results Are In!

Congratulations to everyone who competed in this past weekend's IFCS World Agility Championships in Clevedon, North Somerset, UK.

The Russians did very well at the event winning the Gold and Silver for the Team event, followed by Canada for Bronze. See Team Canada's blog for updates throughout the weekend.

You can see all the results (individual and team) here on the USDAA website, or here on the WAC2010 website. Course links are also available here from the entire weekend.

Congrats the US's Angie Benacquisto & Dylan, Gold Individual Snooker and Individual Biathlon Jumping, and Silver in Individual Standard Jumping; Daneen Fox & Masher for snagging the Gold in Individual Snooker; Stephanie Spyr & Rage, Gold, and Janelle Julyan & Eve, Silver, Individual Standard; Rosanne DeMascio & Drifter, Gold, Individual Biathlon Jumping and Individual Gamblers; and Ann Zarr & Skylar, Silver, Individual Standard Jumping and second place in individual combined.

Some video is beginning to show up on YouTube. Here is Susan Garrett with Feature and Encore during their Invidual Standard Runs, Encore finished in 3rd place and Feature won the gold medal with first place.


Word is that the IFCS World Agility Championships 2012 (WAC2012) will be in the US, no city or date announced as yet. Thanks Karen Moureaux for the update.

Hope everyone gets home safely!

Interesting items we found lately...

We found some interesting articles and other items surfing around lately and wanted to share them with you!

But first....wanted to show an old postcard drawing of me done by Nate Dickinson, back in 2007. Mum found it the other day...think he really captured my wacky side :)

Here's an interesting article from Dog Star Daily's Ian Dunbar talking about reinforcement schedules and their effectiveness in training results.

Some interesting medical related articles, including this one that talks about bone cancer care technique for dogs could at some point benefit people, too. And this one that talks about a breakthrough brain cancer surgery effectively helping dogs could also help humans.

If you missed the PBS program "Through a Dog's Eyes" a few weeks ago, you can still catch it on the PBS website. The documentary follows a handful of people as they journey through the heartwarming and often challenging process of receiving their service dogs. Well worth your time.

Be sure and secure your pup in the car when taking those summer getaways, or just a quick trip to the park. Believe me from experience, it's important! Visit my Squidoo Lens on Dog Car Safety for some tips. Several car insurance companies have riders that cover your pets too, it may not be super cheap auto insurance, but could be valuable if you don't already have health insurance for your pup.

Always good to keep up on...how to help a dog that's choking.

And don't forget to visit my Canine CPR Squidoo lens for info on how to perform CPR on your pup in case of an emergency!

Ever wonder who are the folks behind this video that's been making the rounds via the Internets?


Well, it's from these folks, a Hungarian group called Népszigeti Kutyaiskola or People Island's Dog School who call their dog training method 'the Mirror Method' and use clicker training as well as mirroring to train the dogs. Interesting stuff! Check out this Examiner article and their website for more info.

Snake in the grass!

The past few days, Mum, Gracie and I have been working on endurance hiking....walking the mowed areas around the large pastures at least twice a day about 2-3 miles each time, since Mum was getting a little sore from the ridge hiking, BOL!

We geared up with our harnesses, went out the front door to the porch area, and I knew something was up the minute I stepped out the door. Started the sheltie spinning thing and barking my fool head off.

Mum didn't know what to make of it, but once she led us down the steps from the porch, and out the sidewalk that borders one of our flower beds, I headed right for something I saw in the bed, and then she knew what was up!

Just then the little buggar, which Mum thinks was a Black Racer snake, coiled up to get a good view of us. He looked like he was about to strike, so Mum quickly backed us up a ways, while trying to get a closer look and a photo, but the little guy took off down his hole in a hurry, probably because of all our barking. Guess he was just as afraid of us, as we were interested in him. 

So we have found out over a day or so that these guys aren't venomous, but may strike when threatened. At least that's what the caretaker of our property says. And he's living happily in the flower bed, just where Mum is planning on putting the edge of our fenced in area in the front yard.

We saw the little guy again this morning, but he scurried away. Many on Facebook have shared that these guys are worthy of keeping around to keep down the rodent population, and the bad snakes. But since the caretaker has tons of experience with these guys and said that if cornered they would strike at us, he volunteered to relocate the guy, so that we wouldn't get into trouble sometime down the road after Mum gets the fence put in. Mum's all for that!

Hopefully our fence will be going in within a couple of weeks. Have to say I gained a lb., since not being able to get my zoomies on...even with all this hiking and endurance walking. But Mum's sure I'll work it off pretty quickly once the fence is up. Oh, and did I say FREEDOM!!! Bring it on!

Some agility you don't see everyday!

We just love finding pups and people having lots of fun doing agility; even when it's an unusual breed for the sport.

Here's some agility you just don't see everyday. This is Flash the Basset Hound.


This is Panda, the Saint Bernard!


And then there's Morgan, the agility Mastiff, who seems to really enjoy his runs :)


And of course who wouldn't love Mr. Bojangles, the Great Dane, doing the 60 weave pole challenge in under 18 seconds :)

They may need some safety glasses to get through those tunnels, but I think it's just so cool that they are out there with their pawrents having a grand ole time enjoying agility, no matter what the breed!

One last one, this is DJ, a Borzoi, competing in his first agility trial, nice job!

Great trick vid!

Found this trick vid the other day on YouTube and see some new tricks I want to learn!!!

They do a nice Skidboot...I've been working on my Skidboot trick lately and it's coming along pretty well. All I need is Mum in some riding boots and we'd make a great cowboy act, BOL!

Really like that 'birds on the nose' trick, but am sure the birds would not be safe with my bird herding obsession.

Thought they did a great job compiling all their tricks. Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

IFCS World Agility Championships this weekend!

The IFCS World Agility Championships get underway this weekend in Clevedon, North Somerset, UK. Here are a few key bits of info...

The USDAA is planning live streaming & video on demand of all the action at the IFCS World Agility Championships 2010. You can view each day - Friday, Saturday or Sunday for $4.95 per day or get all three days for $12.95. Click here for more information and to order. And here for a schedule of events for the three days. You can also view a brief schedule on the IFCS website, along with info on past events.

EDIT: Looks like the pricing for the live stream and VOD have changed over the past couple of days. It's now $2.95 per event live and $14.95 for the entire weekend with VOD. More info...

And if you can't watch via live stream or VOD, here are a few sites that may be able to help you keep up with the action.

WAC2010 Results

WAC2010 Facebook

There are a total of 97 competitors taking part in WAC 2010, from the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Spain and the US.

US Team Members include:

12" jump height:
Angie Benacquisto and Toy Fox Terrier, Duncan
Daneen Fox & Papillon, Masher
Janelle Julyan & Corgi, Eve

16" jump height:
Angie Benacquisto & Rat Terrier, Dylan
Suzanne Wesley & Poodle, Sonic (replacing Elizabeth Evans & Hemi (injury))
Rhonda Koeske & All-Breed, Tack

22" jump height:
Elise Lynch & BC, Ting
Kate Moureaux & BC, Driven
Stephanie Spyr & BC, Rage

26" jump height:
Rosanne DeMascio & BC, Drifter
Dudley Fontaine & BC, Maverick
Ann Zarr & BC, Skylar

Meet the judges of the event here, and see some of their past course work.

Good luck to all the competitors!